Foundations In Practice

ALTHOUGH NEW TO GUERNSEY, interest in foundations is high and since January several have made it onto the register. There are many potential uses for the Guernsey foundation and below we illustrate just one of them. In the Middle East foundations have traditionally been thought of as a philanthropic vehicle but that is changing. Lawyers, wealth planners and trust service providers (TSPs) have often struggled to engage Middle Eastern families in the concept of a trust, particularly where the family's golden egg' - the business - is to be structured.

Some success has been seen in using private trust companies (PTCs) to enable the patriarch and the wider family to hang on to control by mirroring the board of the operating company on the PTC board. For many clients, however, the estate planning discussion falls at the last hurdle with PTCs. The PTC's shares need to be owned by a trust and, even though the patriarch can take some comfort from ultimate control as enforcer