As globalisation continues apace, opportunities are arising for practitioners in trust jurisdictions that did not exist a few years ago. Growth continues in the traditional trust jurisdictions, especially in civil law jurisdictions where trusts and foundations have previously been used in a limited capacity. In parallel, the concept of the foundation has been adopted by several common law jurisdictions that, until recently, have relied exclusively on trusts – notably Jersey and Gibraltar.
The fifth edition of 'Trusts in Prime Jurisdictions' has been fully updated and features a number of new chapters on topics including trust and real estate trust in Israel, what it means to be a fiduciary family office, the role of the trust protector, Islamic (Waqf) trusts, and trusts in relation to divorce. In addition, new for this edition are chapters on Germany and Bermuda.
Produced in association with STEP, this edition provides a solid grounding in the use of trusts in a wide range of important jurisdictions and contexts. It also examines related topics such as trust taxation, anti-money laundering laws, the OECD initiative, CRS, exchange of information, transparency of registers and the notion that countries are entitled to collect taxes beyond their borders, among others.
Written by leading professionals and recognised academics, many of whom are STEP members, the fifth edition of 'Trusts in Prime Jurisdictions' will be an essential resource for all lawyers, trust practitioners and banking professionals working in the field.

The Fifth Edition of Trusts in Prime Jurisdictions will be a valuable primer, an enabler of us asking the right questions of our opposite numbers in the other jurisdiction, even where it does not provide the answer.
Richard Citron

As a lawyer from a civil law country, I am thankful for having had the possibility to review a two-volume book dealing with trusts, which has recently been updated and which greatly helped me bridge the gap and expand my knowledge. The editors of Trusts in Prime Jurisdictions (Alon Kaplan from Israel and Barbara R Hauser from the United States) are well-known practitioners. They have brought together more than 50 contributors, mostly from common law countries but also a few from civil law jurisdictions.
Dr Niklas Schmidt

Moses J Anahory
Partner, Hassans
[email protected]

Moses Anahory joined Hassans in 1994 before returning to London in 1996 to join global law firm Baker & McKenzie, specialising in advising on tax planning strategies for resident, non-resident and non-domiciled individuals, and on inheritance and probate matters. He returned to his native Gibraltar and rejoined Hassans in 2000.
Mr Anahory is one of the firm’s leading lawyers in setting up, administering and advising on offshore trust structures. He advises on issues concerning the formation and validity of complex trust structures, and on the ongoing operation of trusts across jurisdictions. He also provides active management and control for major investors in UK real estate.
Mr Anahory qualified as a barrister in 1994 and qualified as a solicitor in 1997. He became a member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP) in 2005. He has contributed chapters and articles to several publications on the law, formation and administration of trusts, and has spoken on the same subject at a number of trusts conferences.

Makoto Arai
Professor of law, Chuo University
[email protected]

Makoto Arai is a professor and the dean of the Graduate School of Law at Chuo University in Tokyo. His research interests include the use of the trust system in an ageing society and the encouragement of better utilisation of adult guardianship. His major works include Trust Law (4th edition, 2014), Visions of the Trust Law System (co-author, 2011) and Visions of the Adult Guardianship Law System (coauthor, 2011). He has also authored numerous articles and is particularly noted for his work in comparative law.
Professor Arai received the Humboldt Research Award in 2006 and the Officer’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in 2010. He is also the president of the Japan Adult Guardianship Association and a standing director of the Japan Association for the Law of Trust. He also serves as chair of the Agency for Cultural Affairs’ Religious Juridical Persons Council.

Daniel Bader
Partner, Bär & Karrer AG
[email protected]

Daniel Bader provides national and international tax, social security and legal advice to individuals and corporate clients. He advises private clients, executives and entrepreneurs on tax and legal-related questions, including succession planning, compensation plans and private wealth structures.
Mr Bader develops solutions, particularly relating to cross-border structuring and to corporate and private relocations to and from Switzerland. He assists clients with questions regarding income and wealth tax, estate and gift taxes, real estate tax and social security. Mr Bader is a frequent speaker at national and international tax and private client conferences, and acts as a board member of family offices. He is president of the Swiss branch of the International Fiscal Association. He is listed as a leading lawyer by Chambers, Legal 500 and Citywealth. Furthermore, Who’s Who Legal 2018 recognised him as expert in the practice areas Private Client and Corporate Tax.

Stanley A Barg
Partner, Kozusko Harris Duncan
[email protected]

Stanley Barg practises in the areas of tax and estate planning, with an emphasis on planning for international families, including US income, estate and gift taxation, the use of trusts, expatriation and other related matters. Mr Barg is a member of STEP’s Worldwide Council and was previously the chairman of STEP USA. In addition, he is a member of the American Bar Association’s taxation and real property, probate and trust law and international sections; the International Bar Association; and the International Tax Planning Association. He has also been recognised by Citywealth as a member of its leaders list in private wealth management for North America.
Mr Barg is admitted to practise in New York, the District of Columbia and Pennsylvania, and is also a member of the Israel Bar Association qualified to practise in Israel as a foreign lawyer.

Allan Blaikie
Senior tax counsel, Clayton Utz
[email protected]

Allan Blaikie formerly headed up the Clayton Utz national taxation team. With over 40 years’ experience, including over a decade as a chartered accountant, Mr Blaikie advises leading Australian and international companies and high-net-worth individuals on a broad range of international and domestic tax matters. He has been involved in the successful conduct of several landmark Australian tax cases, particularly in the area of tax treaty interpretation. He has also led large multi-disciplinary teams in the conduct of Australian and international tax audits and reviews. Mr Blaikie also provides oversight on large taxation engagements undertaken by corporate tax departments, auditors and so on. His practice also extends to undertaking sensitive matters for governments and government authorities in the area of taxation.

Rachel Blumenfeld
Partner, Aird & Berlis LLP
[email protected]

Rachel Blumenfeld is a partner in Aird & Berlis LLP’s estates and trusts group and tax group. Her practice focuses on trusts and estates, personal tax planning and charities and notfor- profit law. She advises on tax, trusts, estate planning and administration, preparation of wills and powers of attorney documents, business succession and insurance planning. Ms Blumenfeld advises on tax and estate planning for families with children with special needs. She has significant experience with cross-border planning for clients who have US or other foreign connections. She is an active member of STEP Canada, serving as national secretary from 2014–2019, and is currently deputy chair of STEP Canada. Ms Blumenfeld was awarded the 2018 STEP Canada Volunteer of the Year award. She is recognised in Chambers HNW: The World’s Leading High Net Worth Advisers for her expertise in private wealth law and The Canadian Legal Expert Directory as a leading practitioner in Estate & Personal Tax Planning and Charities and Not-for-Profit Law.

Alexander A Bove, Jr
Partner, Bove & Langa Law Firm
[email protected]

Alexander Bove is an internationally known and respected trust and estate attorney with over 35 years of experience. He is admitted to practise in Massachusetts and as a solicitor in England and Wales. In addition to a JD and LLM, Mr Bove earned his doctorate in law from the University of Zurich Law School. Mr Bove frequently serves as an expert witness in matters requiring extensive knowledge and experience in the field of trusts, wills and probate. His practice encompasses domestic and international estate planning, and he is regularly consulted by US attorneys and other professionals on issues relating to cross-border estate planning in such jurisdictions as the United Kingdom, Italy, Germany and France.
He has published seven books, including three law books. His latest book, Trust Protectors – A Practice Manual with Forms, is available through Juris Publishing.

Bernadette Carey
Partner, Carey Olsen
[email protected]

Bernadette Carey is a partner in Carey Olsen’s Cayman Islands office. She has a broad private client practice advising on wealth structuring and estate planning matters, including the administration, restructuring and termination of trusts, as well as probate and testamentary issues. She also has significant experience in trust litigation, regularly appearing before the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands on multiparty contentious trust disputes, estate litigation and other cross-border private client disputes. She is a member of STEP and an international fellow of the American College of Trusts and Estates Counsel. Ms Carey is recognised for her trusts and private client work by Chambers, Who’s Who Legal and Legal 500, with market sources describing her as “incredibly hard-working” and “really first class”.

Nina Clift
Senior associate, Carey Olsen (Guernsey) LLP
[email protected]

Nina Clift is a senior associate in Carey Olsen’s trusts and private wealth group, and advises individual fiduciaries as well as trust companies and commercial clients. She drafts bespoke trust instruments and advises on contentious and non-contentious trust matters. Her practice also includes estate planning for local and international clients, the drafting of wills and codicils, and the administration of estates, together with advising on probate issues.

Lyat Eyal
Partner, Aronson, Ronkin-Noor, Eyal Law Firm
[email protected]

Lyat Eyal manages the firm’s private client practice with a focus on multi-jurisdictional estate planning, including trusts, wills, durable powers of attorney and pre-immigration planning for international families. She also provides services in connection with probate and estate administration matters. Ms Eyal was admitted to the New York State Bar in 1998 and practised law at New York law firm Faust Oppenheim, LLP. She was admitted to the Israel Bar in 2005 and practised law at Alon Kaplan Law Firm until 2015, when she founded Aronson, Ronkin- Noor Eyal Law Firm together with her partners. Ms Eyal is a member of STEP, the New York State Bar Association Trusts and Estates Law and International Sections and the International Tax Specialist Group. She is also a fellow at the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel and an academician at the International Academy of Estate and Trust Law.

David Faust
Partner, Gallet Dreyer & Berkey LLP
[email protected]

David Faust represents US and non-US individuals and public and private entities on commercial, corporate, real estate, trust, estate and tax matters, including cross-border corporate, tax, estate planning and trust issues. His practice includes estate planning for clients with assets and/or family in more than one country. He has prepared a wide variety of charter documents, contracts, financial instruments, wills and trusts for asset protection, charitable giving and business continuity, providing for heirs with special needs and general estate planning. He has also probated, challenged and defended wills and trusts in various US and non-US courts.
Mr Faust has participated in numerous programmes in the United States and internationally on trust law and other legal topics. He was qualified as an expert witness in international trusts by the Supreme Court, Westchester County in an international asset protection trust litigation.

Mathew Fenwick
Lawyer, Clayton Utz
[email protected]

Mathew Fenwick is a lawyer in the Sydney tax practice of Clayton Utz. He practises in matters involving domestic and international tax laws, with a focus on the taxation of trusts. He advises generally on tax structures, direct and indirect taxation, tax disputes, securitisation, corporate tax, cross-border transactions, tax residence and the taxation of trusts. He also has broad experience in administrative law and litigation.

Wayne Fortunato
Partner, Hassans
[email protected]

Wayne Fortunato is a partner of Hassans, specialising in all aspects of trusts, from their legal drafting to their management and administration.
Educated in Gibraltar, he received an honours degree in accounting and finance from Teesside University before going on to complete a postgraduate diploma in law, along with the Bar Vocational Course, at the University of Northumbria in Newcastle. He was called to the Bar of England and Wales in 2002, as a member of the Middle Temple, followed shortly after by admission to the Gibraltar Bar.
Mr Fortunato also holds a Diploma in International Trust Management from STEP and has contributed chapters and articles to several publications on the law, formation and administration of trusts.

Michael W Galligan
Partner, Phillips Nizer LLP
[email protected]

Michael W Galligan, PhD, JD, TEP, is a partner in the trusts and estates department of New York law firm Phillips Nizer LLP, where he practises primarily in the areas of domestic and international estates and trusts, US and crossborder estate and income tax planning, private international law and immigration. A former chair of the International Section and recent member of the executive committee of the New York State Bar Association, Mr Galligan is a fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel and an academician of the International Academy of Estate and Trust Law. He is a graduate of the Columbia University Law School (JD 1985) and was an editor of the Columbia Law Review. He also holds a PhD in religious studies from the Yale University Graduate School and an MA in international affairs from Columbia’s School of Public and International Affairs.

Simon Gibb
Partner, McDermott Will & Emery
[email protected]

Simon Gibb is a partner in the law firm of McDermott Will & Emery, based in its London office. He focuses his practice on tax advice, trust and estate planning for UK and non-UK resident and domiciled individuals, including on the protection and devolution of trust assets. While he advises on all aspects of personal taxation and structuring, his practice has an emphasis on the structuring of family businesses through trusts and foundations. Mr Gibb is regularly involved in both noncontentious and contentious tax work.
Mr Gibb also advises individuals, family offices and trustees of offshore settlements on trust law matters and UK tax matters.

Maggie Gonzalez
Partner, Buzzacott LLP
[email protected]

Maggie Gonzalez is a tax partner in the private client team at Buzzacott, based in London. She has over 25 years’ experience within the international private client field, specialising in the UK taxation of offshore trusts, their settlors and beneficiaries and non-UK domiciled individuals generally. She helps her clients to navigate the complexities of the extensive UK anti-avoidance legislation as it applies to internationally mobile clients and their structures, providing practical solutions to the many challenges they encounter. This includes advising on residence, domicile and the operation of the remittance basis. She is a chartered accountant and chartered tax adviser. She is a member of the Chartered Institute of Taxation’s technical subcommittees covering succession taxes, capital gains tax and the taxation of investment income.

Justin Harvey-Hills
Partner, Mourant Ozannes
[email protected]

Justin Harvey-Hills has been a partner in the international trust and private client group and the litigation group in the Jersey office of Mourant Ozannes since 2010. He specialises in banking, financial services, corporate and trust litigation. He has particular experience of investment and employee fraud, asset recovery, anti-money laundering legislation, regulatory investigations and trust disputes.
Mr Harvey-Hills qualified as an English solicitor in 1997 (currently non-practising). He then spent six years with Simmons & Simmons in London before joining Mourant Ozannes in 2003. He was admitted as a Jersey advocate in 2005.
Mr Harvey-Hills has been counsel in a number of the most important Jersey cases of recent years, and appears regularly in the Royal Court and Court of Appeal. He also appeared in the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in La Générale des Carrières et des Mines SARL v FG Hemisphere Associates LLC.

Barbara R Hauser
Independent family adviser
[email protected]

Barbara Hauser has combined extensive experience advising families, family businesses and family offices first as a private client lawyer and later with a focus on governance. Ms Hauser has helped families to develop their unique governance process, which may include a family constitution, a family council and a holding company board. She is a soughtafter speaker and prolific writer, and is often referred to as a true thought leader in the family office field.
Her books include International Family Governance, International Estate Planning, Trusts in Prime Jurisdictions (advisory editor, Globe Law and Business), “Mommy, are we Rich?”: Family Offices Handbook; Talking to Children about Family Money (co-author); Never Ask Where You Are; Saudi-Girl Barbara; and Selling Dog Food in Japan.
Her articles include “The Family Office: Insights into Their Development in the US, A Proposed Prototype and Advice for Adaptation in Other Countries”, “Family Office Trends: Lessons from Dubai?” and “The Family Office Landscape: Today’s Trends & Five Predictions for the Family Office of Tomorrow”. Ms Hauser is also the editor of Globe Law and Business’s International Family Offices Journal and is listed in the Spears 500.

Ying Hui
Associate, Withers LLP
[email protected]

Ying Hui is an associate in the private client and tax team of Withers Hong Kong. She advises high-net-worth individuals and trust corporations on a broad range of private client matters, with a particular focus on trusts, wills, estate and succession planning, as well as establishment of charitable organisations. Ms Hui is admitted as a solicitor in Hong Kong and England and Wales and as an attorney at law in New York State, United States. She is also a qualified trust and estate practitioner.

Raoul Jacobs
Senior policy adviser in financial supervision
[email protected]

Raoul Jacobs’ professional background is in law, which he studied in Gottingen, Vienna and Manchester, United Kingdom. He also obtained a PhD from Gottingen University on “Mandate and Trusteeship in international Law”. He worked in corporate law firms in Hamburg and Dubai before joining the government service in Germany. He has been active in international policy-making organisations such as the European Securities and Markets Authority, the International Organization of Securities Commissions and the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), dealing with a wide range of different topics.

Dominique Jakob
Professor of private law; director of the Center for Foundation Law, University of Zurich; independent adviser
[email protected]

Dominique Jakob is a professor of private law at the University of Zurich. Of German origin, he was appointed as a full professor at the University of Zurich in 2007, where he established the Center for Foundation Law in 2008. Alongside his university work, he has developed a successful national and international private practice. His main fields are all aspects of foundation law (with a focus on Swiss, Liechtenstein, and German relations), as well as international estate and wealth planning (including trusts). He is the author of numerous publications, a sought-after speaker at international conferences and a board member of various institutions, and acts as independent counsel to governments, financial institutions, companies, foundations, associations, families and private clients. Professor Jakob is a member of the International Academy of Estate and Trust Law and has been elected in the Private Client Global Elite since 2017.

Alon Kaplan
Founder and managing partner, Alon Kaplan Advocate & Notary
[email protected]

Alon Kaplan, PhD, TEP, was admitted to the Israel Bar in 1970 and appointed a notary in 1989. He was admitted to the New York Bar in 1990 and became a member of the Frankfurt Bar in 2010.
Mr Kaplan was among the founders of STEP Israel and currently serves as its president. He is an academic coordinator and lecturer on the STEP diploma programme. He was also an adjunct lecturer at the law faculty of Tel Aviv University and lectured on its LLM programme.
Mr Kaplan is an academician of the International Academy of Estate and Trust Law and of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel, and has advised the Israeli Tax Authority on trust legislation. He obtained a PhD from Zurich University in 2014. His doctoral dissertation was titled ”Trusts in Israel: Development and Current Practice”.

Natasha Kapp
Partner, Carey Olsen (Guernsey) LLP
[email protected]

Natasha Kapp is a partner in Carey Olsen’s trusts and private wealth group in Guernsey. She deals with all aspects of contentious and non-contentious trust matters. She advises professional trustees, family offices and ultrahigh- net-worth families and individuals on the establishment, administration and restructuring of complex trusts and foundations and underlying structures. She has acted on the establishment of and continues to advise some of the largest family offices and philanthropies established on the island.
Ms Kapp has recently appeared before the Royal Court of Guernsey in applications regarding the interpretation of trust powers, the variation of trusts, the doctrine of mistake, the application of the Rule in Hastings Bass under Guernsey law, Beddoe applications, rectification of trusts and a significant breach of trust case. She is a member of the Association of Contentious Trusts and Probate Specialists

Vanessa King
Managing partner, O’Neal Webster
[email protected]

Vanessa King is managing partner of O’Neal Webster and heads the firm’s corporate and commercial department. She is based in the firm’s BVI office and specialises principally in BVI trusts, estate planning and private client wealth management, but enjoys a diversified practice which includes banking and finance, corporate and commercial law. Her client base covers the major financial centres of the world, domestic and international financial institutions, leading onshore law firms and trust companies.
Ms King serves as the current chair of the BVI branch of STEP and as deputy chair of STEP’s Caribbean and Latin America region. In October 2017 she was elected to serve a threeyear term on BVI Finance’s board of directors and she is also a member of the administrative committee of the Financial Services Institute.

Hein Kötz
Emeritus director, Max-Planck-Institut für ausländisches und internationales Privatrecht; International Academy of Comparative Law
[email protected]

Hein Kötz is emeritus director of the Max- Planck-Institut für ausländisches und internationals Privatrecht; and of the International Academy of Comparative Law. He represented Germany for the Hague Trust Convention and was a member of the German Federal Commission on the Reform of the Civil Law of Obligations. He is a fellow of the British Academy, a member of Academia Europaea and of the International Academy of Comparative Law. Until 2004 he was president of the International Association of Legal Science.

Daniel Leu
Partner, Bär & Karrer Ltd
[email protected]

Daniel Leu advises private clients and family offices on wealth and succession planning, the handling of estates, foundations and trusts, and questions connected to place of residence. Other areas of work include advising clients who buy or sell real estate in Switzerland and advising on art law.
Dr Leu is a certified Swiss Bar Associaton inheritance law specialist and publishes regularly in the field of inheritance law. He frequently lectures on trust and estate matters in Switzerland and abroad. In addition to his practice, Dr Leu is a lecturer at the University of Muenster, Germany (Master of Law in Inheritance Law & Corporate Succession). Dr Leu is recommended by Chambers and Partners, Who’s Who Legal, Legal 500 and the Legal Week Private Client Global Elite Directory.

James Levy
Senior partner, Hassans
[email protected]

James Levy, CBE QC, is the senior partner of Hassans, specialising in corporate and international tax law. He was appointed Queen’s Counsel in October 2002 and, in 2013, was awarded a CBE for his services to the community of Gibraltar and for his work in helping to grow and develop its economy. Mr Levy advises large public companies on mergers and acquisitions and property companies on acquisitions throughout Europe. He is often called upon by high-net-worth individuals from around the world to advise on complicated commercial and family dispute resolution. He assisted the government of Gibraltar on its development of the jurisdiction as a finance centre.
Mr Levy is consistently ranked as a leading individual by the Legal 500 and has been awarded Star Practitioner status by Chambers and Partners every year since 2007. Chambers and Partners also conferred the highly prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award upon Mr Levy in May 2008.

Meytal Liberman
Associate attorney, Herzog, Fox & Neeman
[email protected]

Meytal Liberman, LLB (Bar-Ilan), LLM (Tel Aviv), TEP, was admitted to the Israeli Bar in 2013. She advises private clients from Israel and overseas on trusts and estate planning as an associate advocate at the law office of Herzog Fog & Neeman, after acquiring expertise in her field of practice over the course of her employment with Dr Alon Kaplan, Advocate & Notary. Ms Liberman has been a member of STEP since 2015, after she completed two years of studies and earned a diploma in international trust management. She is the general editor of, and a contributor to, the book Trust in Israel: Theory and Practice by Dr Alon Kaplan, published in 2017 (Hebrew), and has also authored articles published in publications such as Trusts & Trustees, The International Family Office Journal and the STEP Journal.

Dietmar Loretz
Lawyer, David Vogt & Partner
[email protected]

Dietmar Loretz is a specialist with over 25 years’ experience, providing expert legal, tax and financial advice and assistance with regard to the formation and administration of foundations and trusts; the incorporation and management of companies; trust and estate planning; wealth preservation and protection of assets.
He obtained his law degree from the University of Vienna and an MBA in international wealth management from the Swiss Banking School on a joint programme of the University of Geneva and the Tepper School of Business, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, United States. He is a member of STEP and the International Tax Planning Association.

Jacqueline Marxer-Tschikof
Lawyer, David Vogt & Partner
[email protected]

Jacqueline Marxer-Tschikof obtained her law degree from University of Bern. After practising at the Liechtenstein court and working for the Liechtenstein government, she spent several years at a Liechtenstein law firm. In 2016 she was admitted to the Liechtenstein Bar Association. She joined David Vogt & Partner in 2018.

Paul Matthams
Partner, Stonehage Fleming
[email protected]

Paul Matthams is a partner at Stonehage Fleming, having joined the multi-family office group in 2018. Prior to that, he was a lawyer in private practice in Jersey for over 30 years, specialising in non-contentious trusts and estates law and pensions, acting for high-networth individuals and families, family offices and private trust companies. He has particular skills in drafting technical trusts and foundation documentation tailored to meet client needs.
Mr Matthams is a graduate of Cambridge University and was called to the Bar of England and Wales in 1981. He qualified as an English solicitor in 1988 and a notary public and an advocate of the Royal Court of Jersey in 2001. He is a long-standing member of STEP.

Christopher McKenzie
Partner, O’Neal Webster
[email protected]

Christopher McKenzie is a partner in the London office of leading BVI firm O’Neal Webster. He was the founding chair of STEP in the British Virgin Islands and served as one of the two council members for STEP’s Caribbean and Latin America region from 1999 to 2010 (and then as chair of the region for a further three years). He is also a former vice-president of the BVI Bar Association. Mr McKenzie is generally regarded as the British Virgin Islands’ foremost trusts and estates expert; and from 1997 to 2012 and since 2018 has chaired the committee whose proposals led to most of the jurisdiction’s most significant trust and estate reforms, including both the original Virgin Islands Special Trusts Act legislation and the equally highly regarded private trust company regulations. He is also the author of most of the British Virgin Islands’ leading texts on trusts and estates, and is a frequent speaker at international trust conferences.

Priscilla Mifsud Parker
Senior partner, Chetcuti Cauchi Advocates
[email protected]

Priscilla Mifsud Parker is a private client lawyer heading the firm’s corporate trusts and fintech practices, as well as the families and wealth practice. Through her extensive knowledge in the field of corporate and trusts, she can advise on wealth structuring and wealth preservation strategies for ultra-high-net-worth individuals.
She is also well versed in the process of setting up corporate structures for individuals and successful families, finding the optimal structure for businesses to protect high-value assets and reorganise complex structures. Having participated in various forums for Malta’s Fintech Legislative Framework, Dr Mifsud Parker can also advise clients seeking to enter the fintech industry.

Philip Munro
Partner, Withers LLP
[email protected]

Philip Munro is a partner in the private client and tax team. He has worked for the firm in London, Hong Kong and Singapore. His practice focuses on succession planning for international families. As well as implementing estate planning arrangement for individuals, Mr Munro frequently acts for trustees and financial institutions in relation to trust planning matters. He has been involved in recent years in a number of matters involving the administration of cross-border estates.

Ravi Nath
Partner, Rajinder Narain & Co
[email protected]

Ravi Nath is one of India’s leading lawyers and has been recognised as such several times by Legal 500, Chambers and Who’s Who. He served as president of the Inter Pacific Bar Association; chair of the Aviation Committee of the International Bar Association; and Senior Vice President of the Society of India Law Firms. The chief justice of India and the law minister conferred on him the highest honour of the Bar Association of India.
The well-known clients he advises include Boeing, Bechtel, BMW, United Technologies, Lego, Airbus, UBS, US Exim, Hermes, Deutsche Bank, BNP Paribas and Barclays. His clients also include some of India’s well-known families and high-net-worth individuals. He frequently addresses international conferences and has delivered talks and lectured at various chambers of commerce and lawyers’ gatherings and universities in Oxford, Hamburg, London, Zurich, New York, Chicago and Vancouver.

Filippo Noseda
Partner, Mishcon de Reya LLP
[email protected]

Filippo Noseda is a partner at Mishcon de Reya and a visiting lecturer at King’s College in London. He is qualified in the United Kingdom and Switzerland, and is also admitted in the British Virgin Islands.
Mr Noseda has appeared before the European data protection authorities as an expert on the human rights and data protection implications of systems of international exchange of information and registration.
He is particularly well known for his publishing and speaking activities in his areas of expertise. His ability to tackle complex international issues in a pragmatic way has won him praise in the legal community – he has been recognised as one of the United Kingdom’s Top 50 Influential Private Client Lawyers by e-private client and is ranked as a leading individual in both Legal500 and Chambers High-Net-Worth Guide. Peers say: “Filippo Noseda has a tremendous reputation” and “stands out for his broad range of expertise” (Legal 500).

Mohammad Abu Obied
Judge of the High Sharia Court of Appeal, Jerusalem
[email protected]

Mohammad Abu Obied has been judge of an Islamic court in Israel since 2005. Dealing with family law concerning Muslims, this court has powers over inheritance cases and the establishing of Waqf (the trust). As a part of his responsibilities as Qadi, he has the power to supervise the lawful management of Waqfs established in courts.
Mr Obied is a graduate of Essex University Law School in England and has a second BA in Islamic studies. He also has an LLM in criminal law from Haifa University. He is a member of the Israeli Bar and worked as a lawyer for six years in various fields such as company law, banking law and civil litigation. He has also provided legal advice for Bank Leumi in Israel and has worked as a director of the al-Meezan human rights group. He is a member of the High Sharia Court of Appeal and chairman of the Sharia Counsellor Ethics Board.

Paolo Panico
Partner, Paolo Panico’s Law Chambers
[email protected]

Paolo Panico is an avocat à la cour in Luxembourg, a Scottish solicitor and an advocate in Romania. He is also chairman of Private Trustees SA, an independent trust and corporate service provider in Luxembourg. He has an academic interest in the law regarding trusts and foundations and teaches courses at the University of Luxembourg and the University of Liechtenstein. He has published, among other works, Private Foundations. Law and Practice (Oxford University Press, 2014) and International Trust Laws (2nd edition, Oxford University Press, 2017). He is an academic of the International Academy of Estate and Trust Law, deputy chairman of the International Tax Planning Association and chairman of the STEP Europe Region.

Marilyn Piccini Roy
Partner, Robinson Sheppard Shapiro LLP
[email protected]

Marilyn Piccini Roy is a partner and the head of the wealth management group at Robinson Sheppard Shapiro LLP in Montreal, practising in the areas of estates, trusts, regimes of protective supervision and elder law. She is an adjunct professor at the Faculty of Law of the McGill University. She has written numerous articles and presented seminars and conference papers on successions, trusts and elder law, and is currently a member of the editorial board of the Estates, Trusts & Pensions Journal. She is an academician and the secretary of the International Academy of Estate and Trust Law, an active member of STEP, an international fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel and a past president and now honorary member of the Canadian Bar Association national wills, estates and trusts executive. She is ranked in Chambers HNW, Who’s Who and Best Lawyers.

Peter Georg Picht
Director, Center for Intellectual Property and Competition Law, University of Zurich
[email protected]

Peter Georg Picht studied law at Munich University and Yale Law School, did his PhD at Munich University/the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition, and holds a master’s degree from Yale Law School. He has been working with the European Commission’s Directorate General for Competition, as a senior research fellow with the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition and with two international law firms.
Professor Picht now holds a chair for Economic Law at the University of Zurich and is head of the University’s Center for Intellectual Property and Competition Law. He remains affiliated to the Max Planck Institute as a research fellow and is of counsel with Schellenberg Wittmer. His further affiliations include board memberships in the Academic Society for Competition Law, the Association Européenne du Droit Économique and the Munich IP Dispute Resolution Forum. He is now a visiting professor at King’s College, London.

Michael Reynolds
Managing director, Resolution Trustees Limited
[email protected]

Michael Reynolds has specialised in corporate and trust structuring and administration for over 25 years and now provides fiduciary and corporate services via his New Zealand trustee company Resolution Trustees Limited.
He is a foundation member of the New Zealand Trustees Association (NZTA) and received the New Zealand Trustee of the Year award from the NZTA in 2000. He is also a member of STEP, which he was instrumental in introducing into New Zealand.

Ziva Robertson
Partner, McDermott Will & Emery
[email protected]

Ziva Robertson is a partner in the law firm of McDermott Will & Emery, based in its London office, where she heads the private client team. She specialises in dispute resolution, including complex trust disputes, contested estates and commercial disputes containing fiduciary elements. Her practice involves both the conduct and the avoidance of disputes, and she has extensive experience in crossjurisdictional and international litigation.
Many of her cases, both in England and offshore, have been reported and include milestone cases such as Dawson-Damer v Taylor Wessing, the leading case on beneficiaries’ right to information under the Data Protection Act. Ms Robertson is a frequent lecturer on issues concerning trust structuring and disputes, and has contributed to a number of publications on such aspects.

Keith Robinson
Partner, Carey Olsen Bermuda Limited
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Keith Robinson is a partner in the trusts and private wealth and dispute resolution practices of Carey Olsen Bermuda. He has over 20 years’ experience in non-contentious and contentious trust and private wealth matters. He has particular expertise in high-value trust litigation and court-approved trust restructurings, often with a multi-jurisdictional element. He has represented trustees, beneficiaries, settlors and protectors in a range of cases before the Supreme Court of Bermuda, and has been involved in many major trust cases in Bermuda. He advises on a wide range of non-contentious Bermuda trust matters and also acts as a protector.
Mr Robinson is an active member of STEP. He is also an elected member of the International Academy of Estate and Trust Law, and serves on the Trust Focus Group and the Trust Law Reform Committee of the Bermuda Business Development Agency.

Gideon Rothschild
Partner, Moses & Singer LLP
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Gideon Rothschild is a partner with the New York City law firm of Moses & Singer, where he co-chairs the private client group. He focuses his practice on domestic and international estate planning techniques for high-net-worth clients and is a nationally recognised authority on wealth preservation and offshore trusts.
Mr Rothschild is a past chair of the Real Property Trust & Estate Law Section of the American Bar Association, a fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel, an academician of the International Academy of Trust and Estate Lawyers and a past chair of the New York Chapter of STEP. Mr Rothschild is a member of the editorial advisory boards of Tax Management and Trusts and Estates, a former adjunct professor and a frequent lecturer on asset protection and estate planning to professional groups.

Nicola Saccardo
Partner, Maisto e Associati
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Nicola Saccardo is admitted to the Italian Bar (he is also qualified as Italian chartered accountant). He is a member of the International Academy of Estate and Trust Law, as well as its vice president for Europe and chair of its Tax Committee. He is an international fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel. He is a member of STEP and a member of the International Client Global Special Interest Group Steering Committee of STEP. He is ranked as a leading expert in several legal directories, including Chambers High Net Worth, Legal Week Private Clients Global Elite and the Citywealth Leaders List. He is the author of many publications on Italian tax matters and is a frequent speaker at conferences. He leads the EU tax law course on the LLM at King’s College in London. His areas of expertise include taxation of trusts and estates, estate planning and international and EU tax law.

Susan R Schoenfeld
Chief executive officer and founder, Wealth Legacy Advisors LLC
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Susan R Schoenfeld, JD, LLM (Taxation), CPA, MBA, is CEO and founder of Wealth Legacy Advisors LLC. She is an award-winning thought leader to families of wealth and public speaker to the financial services professionals who serve them – or want to! – on the human issues that keep families of wealth up at night. Based in New York City, she is a ‘recovering’ attorney and certified public accountant with deep experience as an adviser to families and family offices on the human issues of wealth. Ms Schoenfeld’s passion is giving families (and their provider organisations) the tools to take them to their full potential.
After practising law in both tax and trusts and estates, Ms Schoenfeld was fiduciary counsel at Bessemer Trust for over 14 years. She then served as a family ambassador for a private single family office, before launching her consulting practice to ultra-high-net-worth families and family offices.

Yehuda Shaffer
Independent consultant
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Yehuda Shaffer is a consultant specialising in risk and wealth management in the private and governmental sectors, with extensive worldwide expertise in both implementing and evaluating the FATF standards on anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing, as well as in the investigation and prosecution of financial crime and confiscation of assets. He served as the Israeli deputy state attorney (financial enforcement) from 2009 to 2018, and as the director and founder of IMPA – the Israeli financial intelligence unit in the Ministry of Justice – from 2002 to 2009. He received his LLB (1987) and LLM (1989) from the faculty of law at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem (where he has also taught), and an MPA from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University (2000).

Rahul Sharma
Partner, Miller Thomson LLP
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Rahul Sharma advises Canadian and international clients on a variety of tax, trust and estate planning matters. He is experienced with cross-border and international trust and estate matters and matters involving offshore or non-resident trusts with ties to Canada. He also counsels clients in the areas of corporate income tax and business succession planning. Mr Sharma is co-author of chapters on tax and estate planning-related topics. He is a coeditor of Thomson Reuters’ Taxes and Wealth Management publication and the assistant editor of Miller Thomson on Estate Planning, a comprehensive guide to tax and estate planning in Canada. He is also the editor-inchief of Thomson Reuter’s Personal Tax and Estate Planning Journal, as well as the author of several papers and articles on tax, trust and Canadian estate matters. Mr Sharma is a regular presenter on Canadian and crossborder tax and estate planning topics.

Geoffrey Shindler
Director, Old Trafford Consulting Limited
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Geoffrey Shindler OBE is a director of Old Trafford Consulting, a Manchester-based trust advisory company. He specialises in wills, trusts, capital taxation and estate work. Mr Shindler has a degree and postgraduate degree in law from the University of Cambridge and is a registered trust and estate practitioner. He was a founder member of STEP and its chairman between 1994 and 1998. He was chairman of its Education Committee when its diploma examination was developed and introduced; and was its president from 2006 to 2016.
He is also a member of the UK-based Trust Law Committee and has sat on various committees studying the working of inheritance tax legislation in the United Kingdom. He is the consulting editor of Trusts & Estates Law & Tax Journal and a member of the editorial board of Wills & Trusts Law Reports. He is a joint author of Practical Inheritance Tax Planning, Trust Drafting and Precedents and Aldridge Powers of Attorney.

Christian Stewart
Managing director, Family Legacy Asia (HK) Limited
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Christian Stewart is the founder of Family Legacy Asia, a process consulting firm based in Hong Kong. He assists family enterprises around Asia with family governance, succession, learning and development.
Mr Stewart originally qualified and practised as a solicitor in South Australia from 1990 to 1994. He moved to Hong Kong in late 1994, joining PricewaterhouseCoopers, and became a partner and head of its trust and private client group. In July 2002 he joined JPMorgan Private Bank to head the bank’s wealth advisory team for Asia, where he worked for six years. He founded Family Legacy Asia in July 2008 to provide independent advice to Asian families on family and family business governance issues. In addition, from May 2016 he became an associate with Wise Counsel Research, a nonprofit think tank and boutique consultancy based in Massachusetts, United States, focused on matters of wealth and philanthropy.
Mark Walley
Chief executive officer, STEP

Mark Walley joined STEP as chief executive in January 2019. Prior to joining STEP, he worked as managing director, Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) at the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, where he was responsible for ensuring growth in the EMEA region and led on the organisation’s development of global sales, marketing and customer service strategies. Prior to this, he was director of corporate development for the IFS School of Finance, responsible for take-up of its professional qualifications and executive education programmes; and before that, regional director EMEA for Cohen Brown Management Group. He started his career with Barclays, where he spent 25 years – the latter part as sales director and then chief operating officer of Barclays Wealth’s International Personal and Premier Banking Division. He holds a BSc (Hons) in banking and finance and is a fellow of the Institute of Directors

Emily Yiolitis
Partner, Harneys Aristodemou Loizides Yiolitis LLC
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Emily Yiolitis is a graduate in jurisprudence from Trinity College, Oxford, a founding partner of the Harneys Cyprus office, global head of Harneys’ tax and regulatory practice and head of the Cyprus fiduciary practice. Her work includes international tax structuring and planning and her clients include professional intermediaries around the globe as well as high-net-worth individuals.
Ms Yiolitis is the chair of the Cyprus Electricity Authority and has served on a number of public boards, including that of the Cyprus Telecom Authority. She is a founding committee member of STEP Cyprus and served as its chair for three consecutive years. She is a regular speaker at international tax conferences and her work is frequently published in Cyprus and international tax periodicals.
Ms Yiolitis is consistently ranked as one of the leading corporate lawyers in the jurisdiction for her expertise in tax planning matters.