Wealth Talks Zac Lucas

In this episode I shall once again be joined by David Brownbill QC of XXIV Old Buildings.

David is a leading Queens Counsel and has been involved in some of the most prominent recent international trust cases, including the Privy Council decisions in Schmidt vs. Rosewood and Crociani vs. Crociani.

David and I will discuss Family Office Disputes.

Two related aspects will be considered: (a) best practice governance safeguards and precautions to avoid internal Family Office disputes, and (b) where a dispute does occur, best practice dispute management processes and procedures.

We shall evaluate both an "Unstructured Family Office", where the family retain direct personal share ownership of the Family Office, and a "Structured Family Office" where the Family Office is held by a trust.

When considering an Unstructured Family Office, we shall evaluate the principal governance and dispute management tools available: (a) Shareholders Agreement, and (b) Share Class Rights or Article Amendments. We shall evaluate the pros and cons of each option, and how they may be made to work together.

When considering a Structured Family Office, we shall evaluate the options available to a settlor in designing the governance framework of a Family Office Trust, and will critically examine use of the following dispute management tools and/or remedies in the context of a trust:

(a) Arbitration Clause
(b) Exclusive Jurisdiction Clause
(c) No Contest (Sinatra) Clause
(d) Restricted Rights of Access to Information
(e) Bartlett Clause
(f) Trustee Removal

We shall end the talk with a summary of best practice guidance in the creation and administration of a suitable Family Office governance framework that will help to ensure the long term success of the Family Office.

In this episode, I shall be joined by David Brownbill QC of XXIV Old Buildings.

As some of you may know, David is a leading Queens Counsel and has been involved in some of the most prominent recent international trust cases, including the Privy Council decisions in Schmidt vs. Rosewood and Crociani vs. Crociani.

David and I will discuss and evaluate the Family Office Trust.

The question that David and I will answer is whether excessive reservation of powers under the trust to either the settlor or protector may ultimately invalidate the trust? The implications of the recent UK Privy Council decision in Webb vs. Webb [2020] UKPC 22, along with a series of supporting cases including “TMSF” “Pugachev” and “Dua” will be discussed in detail.

The trust laws of Singapore and Hong Kong will be considered, in light of those recent decisions, with potential risks highlighted and discussed.

The talk will end with a practical assessment of steps that may be taken in order to protect the integrity of a Family Office Trust, including:

(a) best practice trust drafting amendments;

(b) use of private trust companies;

(c) use of offshore trust laws, including Jersey, Guernsey, Cayman and BVI.

Demand for Family Office Trusts, containing complex co-governance powers and provisions can be expected to grow, it is therefore imperative that professionals involved in providing trust solutions understand the dangers and limits of reserving excessive powers to either the settlor and/or protector and the practical steps that may be taken in order to protect the integrity of the trust.

In this Virtual Round Table, Family Office Privacy will be considered in light of recent international developments aimed at achieving greater levels of disclosure and transparency of internationally held private wealth.

The following key initiatives will be considered in detail, applied to a hypothetical multi-jurisdiction Single Family Office:

(a) Public Beneficial Ownership Registers;

(b) Opaque Offshore Structures;

(c) Mandatory Disclosure Rules;

(d) Economic Substances Rules;

(e) Common Reporting Standard (CRS);

(f) Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA).

Developments in the principal offshore and investment jurisdictions will be taken into account, including:

(a) Cayman Islands and British Virgin Islands;

(b) Jersey, Guernsey and Isle of Man;

(c) United States of America;

(d) European Union; and

(e) United Kingdom.

The webinar will concentrate on the practical impact of recent developments, what professional advisors and wealth planners will need to take into account in advising family office clients, legitimate steps that may be taken to protect the privacy and security of at risk clients and the long term implications to the international private wealth industry.

Specific cyber security risks will also be discussed, highlighting areas of increased vulnerability and steps that can be taken to enhance family office cyber security.

I'm very grateful to be joined by:

Nancy Chien, Partner, Head of International Private Client, Bedell Cristin, Jersey

Aki Corsoni-Husain, Partner, Head Global Tax and Regulatory Department, Harneys, Cyprus

John Shoemaker, US Counsel, Butler Snow, Singapore

Steve Sokic, Group Head of Private Wealth, IQEQ, UK

Andrew Ho, Head of Private Wealth, IQEQ, Singapore

Paul Jackson, Regional Managing Director, Cyber Security & Investigations, Kroll, Hong Kong

Gerallt Owen, Managing Director, Cyber Risk, Kroll, Singapore

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Webinar audio recording dated 2 March 2022. See Disclaimer, Copyright and Trademarks at https://www.zaclucas.com/disclaimer 

In this episode, two popular private client solutions: PPLI Insurance and Single Family Office, will be pitted against each other to discover which provides the better solution, or whether each is better combined with the other?

The podcast will concentrate on the practical aspects of advising in relation to each, adopting a real-world assessment process, answering typical client queries such as:

Costs | Tax Advantages;
Asset Restrictions;
Control;
Privacy;
Immigration;
Asset Protection;
Reversibility; and
Succession.

Each of the above will be assessed and compared, illustrated by use of hypothetical case studies involving on the one hand a large Indonesia Family with multiple generations and branches, and on the other a young Mainland Chinese Family comprised of Husband, Wife and one Child.

The session will conclude with an assessment of each solution in combination, comprising:

Family Office holding a PPLI policy;
PPLI policy holding a Family Office.

Advantages and disadvantages of each combination will be discussed and explained.

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Webinar audio recording dated 27 Jan 2022. See Disclaimer, Copyright and Trademarks at https://www.zaclucas.com/disclaimer 

The panelists will discuss: 

(a) Core features of a policy and trust, including explanation of terms such a “cash value”, “insurable interest”, “policy distribution” and related trust terms such as “fiduciary office” “fiduciary obligation” and “reserved powers”;

(b) Lifecycle differences in settling a trust and subscribing to a policy will also be compared, using the case of a transfer of shares in a company (in specie subscription);

(c) Lifecycle differences in the administration of a trust and policy will be compared, split into:

    (i) Control: methods to retain control under a trust compared to a policy, particularly in relation to governance and control of an underlying company;

   (ii) Benefit: methods to extract benefits from a trust compared to a policy, including a discussion of policy holder redemptions and policy beneficiary distributions;  

   (iii) Asset Protection: asset protection attributes of a trust and policy compared, particularly in relation to succession, divorce, community property and creditor claims; 

   (iv) Taxation: tax treatment of a trust and policy compared, with recent changes to Indonesia tax law used to illustrate; 

   (v) Transparency: financial account reporting (CRS) of a trust and policy during each lifecycle event will also be compared and contrasted.

(d) Termination of a trust and policy will also be compared, including possible considerations that may arise where a settlor passes away as compared to a policy holder;

(e) Finally, we shall consider combination use of a trust with a PPLI, both in the context of a trust as a policy beneficiary, as well as the case where there is an assignment of a policy into

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Webinar audio recording dated 8 Dec 2020. See Disclaimer, Copyright and Trademarks at https://www.zaclucas.com/disclaimer 

 

The industry experts will explain Thailand's adoption and planned implementation of the OECD Common Reporting Standard (CRS), due to commence in January 2022.

The privacy and security implications of the CRS will be discussed, particularly as it relates to financial accounts held in Singapore and Hong Kong by Thai tax resident individuals.

US and Thai financial account reporting under the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) and related US tax transparency initiatives including the recently enacted US beneficial ownership register will also be explained and discussed.

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Webinar audio recording dated 13 Oct 2021. See Disclaimer, Copyright and Trademarks at https://www.zaclucas.com/disclaimer