Trustee company

[Bartholomew]

Hi all,
We have an existing trust established in a common law country that has been running for a couple of decades. For technical legal reasons, we need to swap out the trustee company to another company. This is allowed by the trust deed and has already been done once before. Lawyers have suggested that a Jersey/Guernsey company as trustee because they have experience with that. However, the costs in those jurisdictions seem rather high. We would like to keep costs as low as possible and given that we probably don't need nominee directors/shareholders are there any better jurisdictions?

 

[Sols]

Trusts don't have directors or shareholders so I'm not sure if I fully understand the‌ request. Does the trust own the shares of another company? In that case, nothing should‍ change in terms of shareholding and at most you replace the directors of the company⁠ with yourself or with the trustees.

If your lawyers recommended Jersey or Guernsey, it's probably⁤ safe to extend the search o Isle of Man and Gibraltar as they have very⁣ similar (but not identical) laws, and lower costs.

For Isle of Man, check with Aston,⁢ Affinity, Trident Trust, Dixcart, and ILS.

In Gibraltar, you have for example Form-A-Co (very budget︀ friendly), Finsbury, Cornwalls, and Ellul.

There are many other jurisdictions that are popular, such as︁ BVI, Mauritius, Singapore, Panama, Cook Islands, and more but not all of them are common︂ law jurisdictions or are mixed.

 

[Bartholomew]

Perhaps I didn't make it clear. The trustee is‍ a company which has directors and shareholders.

 

[Sols]

That is a very common arrangement and one that might be difficult to get around,‌ unless you appoint yourself or a related party as trustee , if that is even‍ allowed under the jurisdiction where the trust is formed. Trusts in the most popular jurisdictions⁠ are usually obligated to have a regulated trust company as trustee.

Are you looking to⁤ keep the exact same trust but change trustee/trustee company, or set up a new trust?⁣

 

[Bartholomew]

We are looking to keep the‍ same trust, but change trustee company. The reason for this is so that tax liabilities⁠ in the trust don't crystallise.

 

[boomy]

That's nice to have you around...
what does it mean if you only think asset protection against lenders?

 

[Sols]

Is the trust currently registered in Jersey or Guernsey? Curious why your lawyers would⁠ recommend those two, if the trust isn't currently there.

How did you do the previous⁤ transfer of trustee company?

What do you mean exactly?

Common law is a⁢ body of laws originating from the English legal system. As trusts are an originally English︀ concept from the medieval age, it has permeated across most if not all common law︁ jurisdictions as the British Empire spread.

However, civil law is another very common body of︂ laws. Trusts are not as common in civil law jurisdictions or are viewed/interpreted differently than︃ under common law.

This is one reason why it's very important to seek legal advice︄ before setting up trusts and such.

 

[Bartholomew]

No

Because it's the jurisdictions they're used to

By deed In the⁠ current jurisdiction of the trust. The reason for the transfer is technical and is to⁤ do with the residence of the current directors of the trustee company.

 

[boomy]

thank you, just wanted to be sure.

 

[bountymounty]

Do you emailed them lately, they don't reply still after 2 weeks‍ gre¤#!

 

[Jerry1911]

Which one of the 5 CSPs mentioned?

 

[bountymounty]

ALL - I don't get any replies !

 

[johndunham]

Then you‌ should probably take another look at the email you send, and make sure that it's‍ proper English and doesn't look like spam hahaha.

 

[Sols]

That seems strange. I've been in contact with a few of them just in the‌ last couple of weeks.

My guess is they either haven't seen your emails or have‍ seen them and decided not to answer for some reason (maybe it seemed suspicious). Sometimes⁠ calling works better.

 

[boomy]

In touch with the guys from Aston!