Interview - San Marino Trusts And Foundations

1. What are the key advantages of your jurisdiction in terms of privacy & asset protection for a Chinese HNWI or Family (etc.) looking to succeed their assets to the next generation?

San Marino trust law is one of the most modern trust law, with feature very typical of civil law, and much focused on the protection and enforcement of settlor’s will, more than beneficiaries’.

2. In terms of cost, how is the cost of a setting up a trust/foundation in your jurisdiction compare to other jurisdictions? If it’s more expensive, what is the additional value that a client receives for this?

The cost of the setting up a trust really depends on the desires of the settlor: more precise and detailed the programme is, more is the cost of drafting the trust or foundation deed. Our firm provides a tailor made approach to drafting, in order to make available the great possibilities the San Marino trust law allows the settlor. 

3. Are trusts or foundations in your jurisdiction the preferred structure for clients? Why do you believe that is? Do you expect any changes in that preference in the future?

Trusts are preferred in San Marino, for the innovative structure of the law, the privacy it allows and the full recognition of the free will of the settlor.

4. What are some of the biggest issues & challenges you come across when planning for Chinese or Asian clients in general? What are the solutions that your jurisdiction provides for these issues?

Chinese and Asian clients appreciate confidence created by personal knowledge and appreciated respect for their traditional, family and social values.

Our focuses on the personal characters of each of our clients and tailor made drafting based on the knowledge of them allows us to implement planning structures well adapted to Chinese and Asian clients.

5. We understand that some jurisdictions focus on asset protection, while others focus on asset succession products. Does your jurisdiction have a better solution for asset protection or asset succession?

San Marino provides for both, even if asset protection is preferred.

6. What are some of the major features of the law that make the trust/foundation in your jurisdiction particularly attractive to investors?
   

The settlor can create a valid trust for beneficiaries, reserving to him self or other persons the power to appoint all beneficiaries at a later time, he can restrict, as he pleases, the right of beneficiaries to obtain information, to terminate the trust or modify it, the entitlement to take action before the court against the trustee, and most of the rights and power in the beneficiary’s boundle according to mandatory rules, in other jurisdictions.

San Marino has a special court for trust law, whose judges are some of the leading scholars in the trust law, both from civil law countries and common law: Prof. David Hayton, Prof. Paul Matthews, Prof. Maurizio Lupoi, Prof. Michele Graziadei, Prof. Antonio Gambaro.  

Contributed by: Andrea Vicari