The landscape of the private wealth world has shifted seismically in the last 10 to 15 years. The discretionary family trust has moved from being an asset preservation vehicle with a dynastic rationale to being seen by prospective settlors much more as a commercial, business-operating tool. With this shift comes far greater scope for contention.
Combined with the ascendancy of crypto-assets, ESG, far stricter substance regulations and a good measure of market volatility, the shift has laid a potential minefield for the discretionary trustee.
In this unique whitepaper, drawn from a real-time dialogue between myself and Ogier’s James Angus (Partner, Dispute Resolution & Insolvency), we discuss these themes from both a professional trustee’s and a lawyer’s perspectives.