Tax and Jurisdictions

For decades, high-net-worth individuals and families have valued Bermuda for the array of services available in the jurisdiction to support trust structuring, private-wealth preservation, estate management and succession planning.

As HNWls continue to look for better ways to protect and manage their wealth, Bermuda is leveraging its well-earned reputation as a leading trust and private client centre to firmly position itself as an ideal location to establish and/or operate a family office.

New regulations driving greater transparency around beneficial ownership are being set up throughout Europe, spearheaded by Great Britain. Alison Ebbage reports

Before David Cameron’s leadership was overshadowed by Britain’s infamous vote to exit from the European Union, he had notched up another notable first: pushing the United Kingdom to become the first G20 country to set up a publicly accessible register of beneficial ownership.

The Panama Papers revelations are unlikely to influence the decisions that ultra-high net worth (UHNW) families make over their finances, according to a leading specialist.

There are only likely to be “very, very limited” effects on how family offices operate, said Sascha Klamp, managing director and chief investment officer of London-based CITE Investments.

Its official name is the global standard for automatic exchange of financial account information – these nine words are a simple distillation of an ambitious project to tackle global tax evasion. Known more regularly as the Common Reporting Standard (CRS), it will see government-to-government sharing of account holder information and builds upon existing legislation, notably the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) and the EU Savings Directive.