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Guernsey and the BahamasGuernsey and the Bahamas

The statutory landscape benefits uber-trusts

Michael McAuley, Of Counsel - Litigation Group

December 28, 2012

4 Min Read
Guernsey and the Bahamas

 

The offshore trust deal thrives. 

Modern offshore trusts are quasi-agencies designed to buttress protection of the settlor and her business partner (the trustee). Over time, the trinity of settlor-trustee-beneficiary and the focus of traditional trust law—strictly for the advantage of the beneficiary—have been significantly eroded by rules frustrating creditors and promoting a general culture of paternalism and posthumous tyranny. 

Claims elsewhere lawful are routinely defeated by exotic conflict and jurisdictional rules. Anti-money laundering and proceeds of crime legislation, together with tax information exchange agreements (TIEAs), have been curiously ineffective in altering the statutory landscape. 

The French have cottoned on to the ...

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About the Author

Michael McAuley

Of Counsel - Litigation Group, Carey Olsen

 

Career

 

He was called as an Advocate of the Bar of Quebec in 1983 and a Barrister and Attorney of Bermuda in 2000. He practised in Montreal and was a partner of the law firm now known as Borden Ladner Gervais. Michael joined Appleby in Bermuda in 1998. After teaching five years at Louisiana State University, he returned to Appleby in 2006. Michael joined Carey Olsen in Guernsey in 2011. Michael specialises in both contentious and non-contentious trust and inheritance matters. He has been counsel in many offshore trust disputes.

 

Publications of Interest

 

Michael is the author of the Bermuda chapter in International Trust Laws (Jordans), the Bermuda chapter in International Succession (Oxford University Press, 2010) and the Quebec chapter in Mixed Jurisdictions Worldwide (Cambridge University Press, 2012). His most recent publications are: “Truth and Reconciliation: Notions of Property in Louisiana’s Civil and Trust Codes” in Re-imagining the Trust — Trusts in Civil Law (Cambridge University Press 2012) and “Juridical Personality and Intimacy” (4 Journal of Civil Law Studies 23 (2011)).

 

Other Information

 

Michael is past Chair of the trusts committee of the International Bar Association. He is an Academician of the International Academy of Estate and Trust Law.

 

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