A New Trust Law For Guernsey - Purpose Trusts Are In But No Foundations Yet.One of the greatest strengths of Guernsey as an offshore jurisdiction is that the States of Guernsey The States of Guernsey (French: États de Guernesey) is the parliament of the Island of Guernsey. Some laws and ordinances approved the States of Guernsey apply to Alderney and Sark (the other component parts of the Bailiwick of Guernsey) as 'Bailiwick-wide legislation' liaise with and listen closely to, the requirements and needs of the Finance Industry. The introduction of the Protected Cell Company for the insurance sector in 1997 is an excellent example, much copied by the rest of the industry. The Incorporated Cell Company which followed offers similar advantages to non-insurance based business. This time around, close dialogue and close consultation with the fiduciary fiduciary (fĭd  `shēĕ'rē), in law, a person who is obliged to discharge faithfully a responsibility of trust toward another. sector has resulted in a review of the Guernsey Trust law. The
final report was submitted in March 2006, the Projet de Loi was
published this month and the resultant legislative changes will be
enacted later this year.
Rather than producing a combined trusts and foundations law as originally anticipated, the proposals sensibly set out the trust changes only, with the new foundation law set to be introduced during 2008, after further consultation with the industry. Interestingly, the new Projet is laid out as an annotated correction of the old 1989 law, making the changes and updates easy to track within a single document. The most significant change is the introduction of trusts for non-charitable purposes (as opposed to non-charitable objects, which formed the base-line of the old law). Whilst draftsmen will need to be sure that such trusts are correctly drawn, and practitioners to be vigilant that purpose trusts are not unwittingly converted to beneficiary trusts by error or lack of understanding, this new arrow in the quiver of Guernsey fiduciary business has been widely welcomed as useful and forward-thinking, if a little overdue OVERDUE. A bill, note, bond or other contract, for the payment of money at a particular day, when not paid upon the day, is overdue. 2. The indorsement of a note or bill overdue, is equivalent to drawing a new bill payable at sight. 2 Conn. 419; 18 Pick. . The new role of Enforcer is introduced, bringing to mind images of Clint Clint is the diminutive word for the given name Clinton and may refer to: People:
legal duty - acts which the law requires be done or forborne which must be actively fulfilled ful·fill also ful·fil tr.v. ful·filled, ful·fill·ing, ful·fills also ful·fils 1. To bring into actuality; effect: fulfilled their promises. 2. , and there are fewer restrictions than expected on eligibility to stand as Enforcer. The use of a .44 Magnum is not mentioned in the new law. Guernsey trusts have always been subject to a 100 year time limit. This has been removed and subject to the terms of the trust, existing trusts can be made perpetual through a decanting process. Not surprisingly given the amount of consultation with professional trustees in Guernsey whilst drafting the changes, the old Section 70 has disappeared. This held the Directors of corporate trustees personally liable for losses due to breach of trust. This contingency is now covered by the obligation under the fiduciary licensing arrangements for corporate trustees to carry professional indemnity insurance indemnity insurance Managed care A type of health insurance in which a Pt can choose the hospital and provider, and the insurer reimburses the Pt or provider for a set percentage of the cost, minus deductibles and co-payments ; so professional fiduciaries in Guernsey are breathing a collective sigh sigh (sī), n an audible and prolonged inspiration followed by a shortened expiration. sigh of relief. A non-statutory lien lien, claim or charge held by one party, on property owned by a second party, as security for payment of some debt, obligation, or duty owed by that second party. over trust assets for retiring trustees is also introduced, and recent case law on disclosure of information to beneficiaries has been taken into account in revising the statutory requirements. Arrangements for the granting of certain powers to settlors and third parties have also been clarified, and a long-standing anomaly Abnormality or deviation. Pronounced "uh-nom-uh-lee," it is a favorite word among computer people when complex systems produce output that is inexplicable. See software conflict and anomaly detection. whereby a Guernsey Trust could not own Guernsey real property has been removed. All in all, the changes are seen as introducing further flexibility to an already competitive area of business, keeping Guernsey at the forefront of fiduciary development. Whilst the delay in introducing foundations is regrettable, it makes no sense to further delay the trust law update whilst foundation law is finalised, and it makes huge sense to separate the legislation of foundations from that of trusts to assist with updating both disciplines further down the road. The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances. Mr Mik Underdown Blenheim Fiduciary Group Limited First Floor Tudor House, Le Bordage St Peter Port GY1 1DB GUERNSEY E-mail: judy.lovell@blenheimgroup.com URL URL in full Uniform Resource Locator Address of a resource on the Internet. The resource can be any type of file stored on a server, such as a Web page, a text file, a graphics file, or an application program. : www.blenheimgroup.com Click Here for related articles (c) Mondaq Ltd, 2007 - Tel. +44 (0)20 8544 8300 - http://www.mondaq.com |
|
||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion