International Trusts
One of the repeating themes of this website is the fact that small island states such as St. Lucia continue to be bullied by, and subjected to, the whims of the EU and the OECD.
One of the first edicts that they issued, and to which our government of the day capitulated, was the repeal of our International Trust Act.
No adequate explanation from Government was ever received as to why this specific piece of legislation was such a mote in the eye of those august bodies, but it was repealed with immediate effect sometime in 2021.
This raises some fairly obvious questions which we will try to answer below:
Do the trusts that were registered still exist: YES. Our lawyers have opined that in the absence of the International Trusts Act, such trusts as were created under its statutes remain in existence. All assets settled onto those trusts remain the legal property of these trusts.
Are the powers/ responsibilities of the parties to the trust affected in any way?
The four parties to a trust are generally the Settlor, the Beneficiaries, the Trustees and, often, a Protector.
The Settlor is the person who wanted the trust and placed assets within it. Obviously, that’s a historic event and is not undone by the repeal of the legislation. It’s unclear whether further assets may be settled on the trust in the absence of the governing law, however such assets as already are in the trust remain so. Any rights the Settlor reserved for himself in the trust deed remain in effect.
The Beneficiaries generally have the right to receive distributions from the trust and really little else. As this is in effect a power exercised by the Trustees the role of the beneficiary is largely unaffected by the Act’s repeal.
The Trustees and Protector (if any) continue to exercise their functions. Whether they are now de facto trustees due to their continuing role as stewards of the trust property, or whether the domestic Trust Act (which is largely old English law) confirms their powers, the trustee has a responsibility to continue to fulfill their role even in the absence of the originally international act.
What now? It is the view of this firm that the Government of St. Lucia made an ill-considered decision when they sacrificed a perfectly innocuous well written piece of legislation to appease the EU. We have been instrumental in drafting a replacement International Trust Act which, we hope, will be enacted by Parliament before the end of 2024.
We will of course at that time update this page with all the “quirks and features” of the new Act. In the interim please contact us by email at adco@candw.lc with any comments or concerns about this page and its contents.