Why a Private Trust Company (PTC)?
Over the last decade professional trustees in offshore jurisdictions have become far more cautious in the way they exercise their powers. This is for two reasons. Firstly, as trusts mature, there have been a number of actions against trustees by creditors, beneficiaries and settlors, which have highlighted the trustees’ duties to these parties and the consequences of following the settlors’ instructions blindly without considering the other interested parties. Secondly, there have been a number of mandatory guidelines issued by regulatory authorities detailing how the responsibilities of trustees should be fulfilled.
The result of these developments is that where a trust has been set up to hold assets other than a simple investment portfolio, for example the family business or the family home, the simplest transactions become complicated as the trustee seeks legal advice and/or indemnities from beneficiaries and potential beneficiaries. Trustees
