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Guernsey Now Offers Foundations

By Tendai Musakwa

Guernsey started offering foundations on January 9, following approval of the relevant legislation by the UK Privy Council. Foundations are incorporated, self-owning, legal entities that are governed by a council. Foundations are legal entities that are created when a person sets aside assets for a specific purpose through a foundation charter. Offshore foundations, such as the foundations that are now offered in Guernsey can be used as vehicles for asset protection as they divorce the ownership of the assets from the founder.

Registering a foundation in Guernsey takes less than 24 hours. To register, have a Guernsey-registered fiduciary e-mail enquiries@guernseyregistry.com with the charter of the registry, a declaration signed by the founder (or his agent), the names and addresses of the proposed councilors and their consents to act, the name and address of the proposed guardian (if any) and his consent to act, the address and telephone number of the registered office of the foundation in Guernsey and the registration fee (£100 for 24 hour registration and £350 for two-hour registration).

Fiona Le Poidevin, Chief Executive of Guernsey Finance, issued a statement saying:

"It's extremely pleasing to see that Guernsey's foundations legislation has been approved and the law has now come into force. Commencement of the law allows our fiduciary professionals to consider the use of a foundation as well as a trust when adopting wealth structures for their clients. Foundations may be particularly attractive to those based in civil law jurisdictions in Europe and further afield in the emerging markets of China, Russia and Latin America where the foundation concept is more familiar."

"We've been hearing from a number of industry practitioners over the past few months that there has been a great deal of interest in the Guernsey foundation. As well as clients looking to set up a foundation, much interest has come from clients who have foundations currently domiciled in other jurisdictions and are looking to migrate these to Guernsey."

"We believe Guernsey's expertise in servicing private clients means that we are especially well placed to administer complex structures due to the heritage we have in providing trust and corporate services as well as, of course, our reputation for being a well regulated and transparent international finance centre."