UK Trends and Developments Contributed by: Roger Gherson, Thomas Cattee, Lisa Uttley and Amalia Gherson, Gherson Solicitors
individual circumstances. Homes in other safe loca - tions are essential, as are liquid assets, in the event of bank accounts being frozen or closed. Some sanc - tioned individuals have had their second nationali - ties and passports revoked, though not all. After the implementation of sanctions, virtually all individuals from sanctioned countries, whether themselves sanc - tioned or not, were excluded from economic citizen - ship regimes. Non-sanctioned individuals have also been targeted by banks and institutions exclusively because of their nationality. Today, a diligent family will look far and wide at all the different economic passport naturali - sation schemes (again, specialist advice is essential) and sometimes engage with one or more as individual In today’s uncertain world, the structuring of assets in companies, investments and trusts should be under - stood as much from the point of view of international investment treaty protection as from the behaviour and reputation of the trustees or company service providers involved. Bilateral Investment Treaties (“BITs”) are often disre - garded in the wider investment context, but they can offer a saving grace and insurance for investments. Notably, the EU has sought to undermine the use of BIT protections with their 18th package of sanctions. Both companies and individuals can make use of BITs, however and it is therefore essential to struc - ture investments with a full awareness of exactly what protections are available. circumstances may dictate. Planning your investments
It is increasingly likely that a family office or a wealthy family will, at some point, seek to appoint profession - al trustees. Experience with new worldwide criminal investigations and sanctions implementation strate - gies has led a number of trustee companies to renege on their services, often without any notice, paralys - ing the trust assets in their care. It is unclear whether this may have happened at the behest of the local regulator or because the trustee companies in ques - tion value their own reputation more than the (often unproven) allegations. In small jurisdictions, however, it is almost impossible to find another trustee to act in such circumstances. Specialist advice should be sought on how to manage this particular risk. There are many other factors to consider, including the risks of politically motivated prosecution. This could easily extend to state-sanctioned corporate raiding of family assets supported by INTERPOL Red Notices and formal extradition requests. Under normal circumstances, much of what we have outlined above concerns matters that the majority of family offices and advisors would not feel the need to consider. But therein lies the problem. We no longer live in a predictable world under “normal” circum - stances. In today’s highly charged political and geo - political atmosphere,, every family office and every advisor has a duty to evaluate the growing risks to their principals and act accordingly – even if they then discount the risks or deem them acceptable. What they absolutely cannot do, however, is to turn a blind eye to it all and bury their heads in the sand.
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