Over the last four decades, the trust industry in the Channel
Islands has witnessed enormous growth and change, precipitating a
corresponding evolution within the private wealth legal sector
which has adapted to meet the increasingly complex needs of its
clients.
The 1970s, 1980s and 1990s saw a surge in the number of trusts
being established in Guernsey and Jersey as a result of an increase
in the sophistication of international tax planning, the United
Kingdom's exchange controls, and the migration of wealthy
residents to the islands. At that early stage the lawyers servicing
the growing body of trust companies tended to have broad, mixed
practices, encompassing other legal disciplines such as corporate
law, banking and litigation. However, as the industry grew,
and as trusts evolved from simple vanilla vehicles to the more
complex, bespoke structures that began to emerge in the 2000s,
lawyers started to specialise, adapting their skills and expertise
to meet the
