Trusts are used for a variety of purposes and are a flexible instrument which can be used to accommodate family needs as well as for commercial transactions.

There are a number of advantages and purposes for using a corporate entity. This can be as a stand-alone vehicle or as part of a wider financial structure to hold residential or commercial property, tax structuring and to hold investment portfolios.

Livingstone provides the incorporation and administration of companies from a range of appropriate jurisdictions, each being identified for their own particular qualities and dependent on the client’s needs. The Guernsey Companies Law has been regularly revised to ensure that it remains appropriate to the constantly changing global financial environment. The Guernsey Registry has an online fast track incorporation process which allows for an incorporation in 15 minutes. This, together with other advantages of a Guernsey company, often makes it the jurisdiction of choice for new incorporations.

Whatever the purpose, we can help identify the most suitable jurisdiction and corporate vehicle to use to match the enterprise being undertaken.

The Foundations (Guernsey) Law 2012 became effective in January 2013 and provides for the creation and administration of Guernsey foundations. Foundations are often used as an alternative to traditional trust and company structures in family wealth planning and are likely to be of considerable interest to a wide variety of clients, in particular for those from civil law countries less familiar with trusts. We are seeing an increasing number of clients with existing foundations who are looking to migrate their exisiting foundations to Guernsey from less well regulated jurisdictions or less convenient jurisdictions and also to take advantage of Guernsey’s G20 white list status.

An increasing number of wealthy families are finding benefit from moving their operations from institutional providers to a firm that specializes in the formation and management of financial vehicles.

Livingstone’s approach to assisting those families with private office needs is to draw on our existing expertise and relationships and tailor these to the specific needs of the family concerned. Often this may lead to the establishment of a separate office within Livingstone, which in conjuncture with an existing family office will provide not only a central point of communication for all members, but will offer the expertise required to manage all aspects of a family’s wealth.