Singapore

Cayman“There’s still a great deal of newprivate wealth business cominginto the Cayman Islands, not onlyfrom the Americas where the moresubstantial amount of ourengagements come from,” saysLambotte. “Ultra-high net worthfamilies and their trusted advisorsfrom all over the world arechoosing Cayman, especially forprivate trust companies, and wehave strong brand recognition inAsia. Ten or fifteen years agoCayman’s reputation as a privatewealth jurisdiction was nowherenear as good as it is now.”The growth in Cayman’s appeal toan Asia client base is particularlyinteresting, and highlights theprogress the islands have madeon the trusts side with innovationssuch as private trust companies,discretionary trusts, STAR trustsand settlor directed trusts. Thoughtraditionally known by Asianintermediaries for more traditionalcorporate and funds work,Cayman has managed to build areputation for wealth structuringon the back of that.Lambotte comments: “The Asianmarket is highly competitive, butCayman has a strong advantage.One of the reasons is that Asianlawyers were familiar with Caymanfrom a corporate and fundsperspective because Caymancompanies dominate the HongKong Stock Exchange andcommercial and private funds orunit trusts gravitate here. So in therecent past when these advisorswere asked for advice on first tosecond generation personalwealth transfer, it was a naturalstep for them to apply theirexisting jurisdictional knowledge tothose matters and Cayman wasaccepted by their clients."The growing diversity of the clientbase is an experience shared byMonique Bhullar, senior counsel inthe global trusts group at the lawfirm Walkers, based in Cayman.She says wealth managementwork is increasingly coming toCayman from farther afield and isgetting noticeably moresophisticated.“In terms of demand, we see a lotof business out of the Middle East,which tends to be inherited familywealth,” she says. “There is alsoincreased business from Asia,typically involving currentgenerationentrepreneurial families,with a younger generation ofclients wanting to set up complexstructures. Then Cayman hasalways traditionally receivedbusiness from Latin America, andas the economic health of certaincountries in that region improves,we continue to develop morework.”She notes that historically the firmwas establishing simplerstructures for high net worthindividuals, such as reservedpowers trusts and single trustsholding investment funds. Now alot more business is coming fromultra-high net worth familiesseeking more complex structures.Cayman broke new ground for theindustry when it introduced STARtrusts, its own unique form of noncharitablepurpose trustlegislation, in 1997, and thosehave since been introduced in theBritish Virgin Islands and otheroffshore jurisdictions. Cayman’sreserved powers amendment totrust law came into effect in 1998,clarifying the powers that can bereserved by the settlor of a trustwithout there being a risk that acourt will consider thearrangement to be an agency,rather than a trust.Hislop at Deutsche Bank adds:“As well as Cayman’s geographiclocation being an advantage overother wealth managementcentres, being in the same time-“In terms of demand,we see a lot ofbusiness out of theMiddle East, whichtends to be inheritedfamily wealth.”Monique Bhullar,Senior Counsel, WalkersCitywealthmag.com Citywealth magazine, July 2015 • 20