Trust Essentials: December 2022

• Published date: 21 December 2022
• Subject Matter: Corporate/Commercial Law, Wealth Management, Wealth & Asset Management, Trusts
• Law Firm: Ogier
• Author: Christopher Levers, Anthony Partridge, Deborah Barker Roye, Jordan Constable, Kelsey Sabine, Gavin Ferguson, Matthew Guthrie, Catherine Moore, Chris Hards, Sophie Denman, Diana Rodriguez, Tehya Morgan, Marcus Leese, James Campbell, Damian Evans, Josephine Howe, Rebecca McNulty, Katherine Neal, Matthew Davies and Paola Sequeira

Read Trust Essentials online.

We round out 2022 against a backdrop of significant challenges for many economies, as a result of high inflation and the ongoing fallout of the pandemic and the war in Ukraine. The picture is not uniform across the globe however, and neither is the impact upon private clients.

Whatever the particular circumstances of a client, times of significant change and disruption can often prompt conversations about the bigger picture. With the great wealth transfer already underway, these conversations are inevitably including considerations about succession planning, and the next gen's attitudes towards wealth. Our lead article this month provides an overview of some key things to consider in this area, and our team will be examining this momentous shift in greater depth as part of our next gen series, which we'll be rolling out over the coming months.

For now we hope you enjoy this last edition of Trust Essentials for 2022. Season's greetings from Ogier's Trusts Advisory Group, and all the very best for 2023.

Conversations with the next gen

More and more clients and advisers have been discussing the "next gen", be they Millennials, Gen Z or even the future Gen A. So, why is this a topic raised arguably more than in previous decades, and what considerations should advisers be ready to discuss over the coming years? Continue reading ...

The substratum rule: does it matter?

Over the past few years, offshore courts have been grappling with whether an overarching equitable concept known as the "substratum principle" exists. The substratum principle is explored further in this briefing, however the essence of the principle is that absent special circumstances, a trustee is precluded from making changes to how a trust operates if doing so will change the very fabric of the trust. Continue reading ...

Cayman Privy Council provides important clarification of the rights of the trustees

The Cayman Islands' Privy Council in a consolidated decision of two unconnected Court of Appeal cases from Jersey and Guernsey, clarified the method of dealing with a trust which has insufficient assets to settle its liabilities (colloquially referred to as an "insolvent trust"), in: Equity Trust (Jersey) Ltd (Respondent) v Halabi (in his capacity as Executor of the Estate of the late Madam Intisar Nouri) (Appellant); and ITG Ltd and others (Respondents) v Fort Trustees Ltd and another (Appellants) [2022] UKPC 36. Continue reading ...

We all make mistakes - but...