Trust support services

Helping trustees and their stakeholders understand and master the challenges of an increasingly complex and international environment

Administering a trust is a great responsibility. In an increasingly complex and transparent environment, we aim to make your life easier by helping you navigate and meet your global reporting, regulatory and tax requirements. We work with clients to proactively identify and address the tax risks and opportunities that emerge at different phases of the trust life cycle: when the structure is initially established, during the period assets are held in trust, and at the time the structure provides distributions and benefits.

What are the key challenges?

In addition to safeguarding and managing the trust assets in accordance with the relevant powers, duties and responsibilities, Trustees operating in today’s world face the following challenges:

Complex and rapidly changing reporting requirements

Continuously evolving international tax environment

Growing calls from authorities and the public for greater transparency

Our services

We work with the various stakeholders connected to trust structures. This can be the trustees themselves (corporate or individual trustees), the directors of underlying companies or the individuals connected to structures ‒ in other words the settlor, protector and beneficiaries.

What’s our approach?

We get to know you to understand your needs and tailor our offering to meet your objectives. We actively encourage open and continuous dialogue to ensure you get the best out of our working relationship. We’re experienced in adapting the nature of our support as your requirements evolve.

Depending on your needs and wishes we can support you in a variety of ways. That might mean assisting you with specific projects or transactions or on an ongoing basis. It might entail support with individual trust structures or trust structures more generally. You may require support in relation to a single jurisdiction or multiple territories. You may be looking for a single point of contact to access our global network, or alternatively you might prefer to have a team of direct specialist contacts at your fingertips. All this is possible.

We work with many international trust companies and understand the challenges you face keeping up with the tax and regulatory requirements in multiple jurisdictions. We know that having a sounding board as a trust company can help you manage your risks and free up your time to focus on what you best at: managing the trusts and families that you work with.

Giving updates on new legislation relevant to the trust industry
Providing bookkeeping/basic accounting
Reviewing structures to assess transparency risks and considerations
Identifying DAC6 reporting requirements
Identifying jurisdiction or asset specific tax charges – for example UK IHT charges on real estate held in a structure
Helping prepare for CRS reviews by authorities and implementing any required changes
Addressing economic substance considerations – analysis, review and reporting
Submitting any local filings required
Taking care of registration under new FINMA/FINSA requirements

We work with hundreds of individual structures set up at various times, for different reasons across the globe. It is important for everyone involved in the structure whether that is the settlor, the beneficiaries or even the protector to understand what tax and regulatory requirements may fall on them, at what times and in which countries. The KYC and AML requirements falling upon professional service providers (for example, banks) have also significantly increased, often leading to requests for information covering all aspects of the structure - from reasons for establishment, to confirmation of ongoing tax / regulatory compliance.

Initial meetings with individuals prior to a new structure being set up
International tax advice on the establishment of structures covering the considerations relevant to the settlor, beneficiaries, the nature of the trust, underlying entities, assets, etc.
Ongoing international tax advice as required – for example in relation to additions to structures, the sale of or changes in assets, distributions, funding requirements or changes in the residence status of the settlor or beneficiaries
Ongoing tax compliance support for individual trusts, settlors, and beneficiaries
Providing tax accounting services and preparing tax pool records
Advising individual trusts on the suitability of investments within the trust from a tax perspective
Providing a KYC review – we can review the structure going back over time to provide enhanced KYC support and comfort either for the trust company itself or the intermediaries working with the trust (banks for example)
Understanding the extent of any relief available (either by foreign tax credit or full/partial refund) for foreign tax suffered within client structures, together with preparing the associated filings and applications to the relevant tax authorities
Corporate tax residence/place of effective management considerations for corporate entities within client structures

What are the benefits for you?

We help you understand and reduce tax risks: We draw on our global network and our experience working with international families to proactively spot relevant risks and opportunities.
We help you comply with international reporting and regulatory requirements: our specialist teams facilitate consistent reporting across multiple jurisdictions.
Save you time and reduce costs: Our services harness the latest technology to streamline the services we offer you and maximise efficiency wherever possible.