Using Trusts to Protect Investments Made AbroadUsing Trusts to Protect Investments Made Abroad

Does the use of trusts allow clients to efficiently protect investments made abroad against adverse actions of foreign states? While the trust concept existed in common law jurisdictions for many centuries,¹ if asked a decade ago, this question most probably wouldn’t have attracted significant practical interest. Although by that time, trusts were already routinely used in a wide variety of international commercial and investment transactions, such use was overshadowed by their traditional perception as a device for organizing intergenerational wealth transfer as well as an asset protection tool² or, in the case of offshore trusts, as a device for obtaining confidentiality and tax advantages or, even, tax evasion.³

The utility of trusts a...