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Trust Management in the Bahamas |
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Bahamian trust laws provide a large degree of flexibility and anonymity. The Bahamas has been, for the past 50 years, providing trust administration and management services, and it's not difficult to see why it's attractive to those who became clients.
Bahamian trusts not dealing in local property are exempt from registration, and the Trustee Act of 1998 states that nonresident donors, beneficiaries and trustees do not fall under Bahamian Exchange Control laws. The 1998 Act also makes provision for a 'protector of trust,' essentially someone who is in a position to supervise the trustees, as well as extending managerial and custodial powers to the trustees themselves.
Catering to this need for trust services is a large and sophisticated body of advisers in the Bahamas. Companies formed for the purpose of providing trust services have to obtain licenses from the Bahamian Central Bank through a rigorous application procedure.
There are two main types of trust in the Bahamas, public and restricted. These differ primarily in the amount of capital required to set them up and the amount of control exerted over them. Public trusts require a million dollars; restricted-class concerns only need $100,000 dollars.
In 2004, Bahamian trust law was brought further up-to-date by the enactment of the Purpose Trust Bill. In this form of trust, the benefits are for a cause, and no one is vested with entitlement of the property. There are many uses for this structure such as the holding of private company shares, the formation of a trust for charitable purposes, the establishment of a discretionary trust in line with a non-incorporated body's philosophy, etc.
Bahamian law also provides protection for trusts. For example, the Trust (Choice of Governing Law) Act of 1989 provides protection in cases of forced inheritance claims by giving the settlor the option to declare Bahamian law as the governing law of the trust, rendering it immune from foreign decisions.
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