Thomas More, the 16th century philosopher and statesman, and author of Utopia, argued that the law should be made simpler so there would be no need for lawyers at all.
Following the summit of the G20 leaders on 15 and 16 November 2014, the group issued a declaration. This included a statement endorsing a set of core principles on the transparency of beneficial ownership of structures such as companies and trusts.
It was Thomas More’s ideal that divorce should be made easier. However these idealistic principles could have a huge impact on both divorce cases and estate planning for high net worth individuals, and make them anything but easier.
The principles set out a number of requirements for countries to apply to entities such as trusts, companies and financial institutions including the need to:
– Have a definition of ’beneficial owner’ that encompasses the natural person who ultimately owns the legal person or arrangement.
– Ensure that trustees of express trusts keep adequate accurate and current beneficial ownership information, including information about the settlor, protector (if any), trustees and beneficiaries.
– Ensure that the relevant authorities are able to access information on the beneficial ownership. The statement suggests that there should be a central registry of beneficial ownership.
– Ensure that relevant authorities exchange information on beneficial ownership with those of other countries.
– Tackle arrangements that limit transparency, such as prohibiting the ongoing use and creation of bearer shares, and ensuring that nominee shareholdings and nominee directorships are not misused.
These principles seek to help the countries collect taxes, and hopefully lead to greater equality of distribution of wealth. However the offshore jurisdictions which hold much of the wealth of the world’s richest people, are not part of the G20, and it would certainly not be in their interest to follow such principles. Indeed, many of the wealthy people using these structures would argue that it is because they seek to avoid corruption and regime change that they need such trusts to protect their wealth.
It would certainly help those who are seeking a divorce, and who do not hold assets in offshore structures, to find out about their spouse’s assets.
Vardags Limited is a limited company trading as Vardags, Company No 7199468, registered in England and Wales, having its registered office at 10 Old Bailey, London EC4M 7NG. Vardags is authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA Number 535955). Its VAT number is 99 001 7230.
Vardags uses the term ‘Partner’ as a professional title only, to describe a Senior Solicitor, Employee or Consultant with relevant experience, expertise and qualifications (whether legally qualified or otherwise) to merit the title. Our Partners are not partners in the legal sense. They are not liable for the debts, liabilities or obligations of Vardags Limited. Similarly, the term ’Director’ is a professional title only, to describe a non-legally qualified employee or consultant of Vardags with relevant experience, expertise and qualifications to merit the title. It does not necessarily imply that the relevant individual is a director of Vardags Limited.
A list of the directors of Vardags Limited and a list of the names of those using the title of ’Director’ and ’Partner’ together with their official status is available for inspection at Vardags’ registered office.