Should My Assets Be Held In An Offshore Trust?

Trust have existed for more than 500 years and the last century has seen the emergence of different forms of trusts ranging from charitable trusts, to asset protection trust to discretionary trust. The BVI has recently come up with a varying form of Trust called the Vista Trust whereby the settlor retains some form of control over the assets he settles into the Trust.

Trusts are set up for different reasons but the most common ones are for assets protection and privacy goals.

A popular planning option to avoid concerns over litigation is to set up an asset protection or discretionary Trust. In this event, assets are settled into the discretionary trust by the settlor. These assets are then legally regarded as the assets held in Trust and owned by the Trustee (which is normally a professional trust company). In the event the settlor faces legal proceedings by creditors, the assets held in the Trust cannot be used to settle his debts as