Articles 

Private clients can no longer expect privacy from offshore. The ICIJ has published a vast trove of information in the form of a highly efficient database covering almost 500,000 companies, foundations and trusts. This information can be used by revenue authorities,...

A strong pattern has emerged - massive files released and substantial resources applied to fully analysing them. Each additional data point added to the existing leaked jigsaw has a potentially exponential impact. With each data-dump the probability of worse future...

Consolidation phases tend to move in waves, especially when private equity aggressively enters the offshore service provider sector. Buy-out vehicles target trust companies to get access to supposedly excellent cash flow generation (usually a mirage), cross-selling...

Settling a trust is a process of severing legal ownership, and day-to-day decision-making, over assets. A purpose for the trust is necessary - be it for the benefit of children or charity - but the trustees will need to decide how best to meet that aim. If...

Legislation covering PCCs is quite common - over a dozen jurisdictions allow them. It is a fashionable answer to the question of how to segregate assets and liabilities but is it better than using multiple companies? PCCs can become unwieldy quickly and the audit...

We have previously written about bottom-up data opacity in the offshore world but this note looks at top-down data withholding. There is pervasive grade-inflation in AUM statistics provided at the jurisdictional level, partly as AUM has been over-emphasised and...