Welcome to this webinar about utilising the power of trust.

Here at Arca Wealth, obviously we're going to explain a little bit more detail about what we do and how that can work for you.

And our CEO, James, will be answering some questions at the end.

So, the agenda for this webinar.

First off, we'll tell you a little bit about Arca Wealth.

And then we'll go into a little bit more detail about trust, what they are.

Our motto, which we use every day, which is own nothing and control everything and the international aspect to those trusts.

And then we'll dive a little bit deeper, Bypress International Trust and the benefits of those and how you can set one up.

And then the kind of framework we use and what we term working for your trust, how that works, the benefits of that and the legal protection and how to get started.

And like I mentioned earlier at the end, we'll then have a live Q&A with questions you could submit.

And James, our CEO, will answer those.

We'll answer them together.

So a little bit about our wealth.

Basically, as a company, we aim to help you navigate diverse legal and tax structures by implementing and maximizing the potential of a trust.

So that you can protect your assets.

You can be locationally independent, maximize tax efficiency, and at the same time build legacy, build generational wealth.

And at the minute, we do that via two methods.

We use education.

And then, of course, as a firm, we can implement the things we talk about as well.

And they're the two things we do.

So education is at the forefront of it at the minute.

That's probably why a lot of you are on this webinar. and the way we educate at the minute is by social media.

You'll have seen our whiteboard presentations, our whiteboard videos.

We try and use diagrams and drawings as simply as we can to then get our message across in the best possible way.

And you'll have seen that on Instagram, making TikTok, maybe YouTube shorts.

Some of you will have already spoken to me, the people who haven't, the majority of you, I'm guessing, are here because of our social media and that education we're trying to provide. and the reason we do that is to bridge the knowledge gap um you know not a lot of people know about these things um the information isn't gatekept it's not a secret it's out there for all of us to be aware of and that's why we use social media and the videos we create to bridge that gap and bridge that knowledge gap on how we can protect your assets how you can optimize your how you can become locationally independent and build generational wealth and plan for legacy and get our message out there and help as many people as we can.

And obviously then once we've educated us and people are interested and they feel like they're educated well enough to make a decision, we can obviously help implement those things we educate on as well.

We can help you set up a trust.

We can structure that efficiently in a manner that suits you and bespoke to your circumstances.

And at the same time, offer legal protection, legal opinion that can then give you peace of mind about these structures and how you can utilize them in your personal infrastructure.

So really, it's all about building legacy.

And what that means for you and yours and protecting what you've earned, keeping it for future generations and passing that on.

Now, James is going to go into a little bit more detail later on about this.

But, you know, that's kind of the crux of it, isn't it?

Building legacy.

Now, we're going to talk about trust, and this is where James is going to take over and give you the real in-depth insight into what these are and how they work.

So I'm going to pass it over to James.

He's the CEO of Arca Wells.

He's a real expert here.

And, you know, I'm sure you're all looking forward to hearing his insight on this.

And I'll let him present and take over from me here.

Hi, everyone.

First of all, thank you for turning up.

I have no idea how many people I'm speaking to because I'm very blindly sat behind just looking at reading the screen of the presentation.

So first off, thank you for turning up on a Tuesday early evening.

So what are trusts?

Where did they come from and how did they sort of come into being?

Well, they first originated in around the 11th to 12th century when the Romans basically conquered Europe.

And they brought with them this thing called the trust.

And they were adopted first by a separate nation other than the Romans, by the British. and the first recorded trusts go back to 1216, which is the date of the Second Crusade.

Pope Urban II called everyone into action to go and fight in the Middle East.

Anyway, that's when trusts were first related.

So trusts are something that's not new.

They're very old.

They're enshrined into what's called common law and that means that they're set by precedent and adjudicated upon by precedent.

What that means in reality is that trust is very difficult to change or to get rid of.

It's not something that's covered by an act.

And a trust is viewed as a separate legal entity, much like a business and a company is.

So it's a separate legal entity from yourself, which separates the title of ownership from the beneficiary status.

So you can benefit from something without actually having to own it.

And within a trust, there are three key elements.

Well done.

I'll show you a bang on time with that.

Thank you very much.

So the three key elements are the settler.

That's the person who creates the trust and settles the assets within to the trust.

That person gets to create the rules of the trust by something called a trust deed.

That trust deed is where you get to express the rules.

So you can, for example, put conditions in that bloodline only can inherit, so you can never be sort of lost if your children then get divorced.

None of the assets within the trust would go with that divorce.

So you get to set the rules.

It might be that you want to set up an entrepreneur's fund or whatever the rules that you are.

They can be very, very varied, but you're in control.

The settler creates the rules of the trust when they create it through the trust deed.

And they're the person that placed the assets into it.

Those assets then become the property of the trust.

And that trust is managed by the trustee.

And the trustee is someone who is legally responsible for managing those assets that the settler places into the trust on behalf of the beneficiaries.

That's their sole purpose.

They can only abide by the rules.

So if we use the analogy here, the settler is the person that creates the rules.

So they're like FIFA.

If we look at this as a soccer, as a football, they're like FIFA.

They implement the rules.

The trustee is then the referee because they can't make the rules so they can't do what they want.

They have to be bound by the rules as set out by the settler, but they can impart the rules.

And then the final category is the beneficiaries.

And they're basically exactly what it says on the tin.

They're the people that benefit from the assets that are placed within the trust.

Now, the settler can be a beneficiary.

So the settler can benefit from the assets that they place within the trust.

And if you think about this in logical terms, what does that mean?

If I were to place a tennis racket into a trust, that tennis racket can be used by any of the beneficiaries as if it was their own, but they would never own it.

They would just be able to use it freely. and that's what the trust does effectively separates title from beneficiary status own nothing control everything this is one of my favorite sayings it's a mantra that i speak to people about now this is jd rockefeller um he gave a speech to harvard business and law school where he said own nothing control everything and what he meant in that uh was use trusts effectively that's that's what he said this in fact the second line of that speech which is not well publicize at all is a trust is the best kept secret hidden in plain sight and there's probably a reason why we don't hear that so all nothing control everything literally means and the benefit that rockefeller was talking about was be able to have everything under your control to use as if it was yours but if you don't own it then nobody can ever take it from you so if we go back to the example of the tennis racket the trust owning the tennis racket if you ordered debt to somebody for whatever reason and they said right i'm going to take this tennis racket from you in settlement of that debt you would be able to say well actually you cannot take that tennis racket because it's not mine it's the trust i'm just using it so everything that sits within the trust adds a layer of protection which means it's protected as an asset and only the trust itself can lose the asset regardless of any actions that you take so all nothing control everything means retaining control retain the power retain the benefit but don't physically have it as yours so it cannot be taken from you he's talking about asset protection and and covering your backside there so for example um if you owned all your assets to a trust and you took a bank loan for a business and that bank loan required you to sign a personal guarantee for example if that bank loan was ever recalled or personal assets were tried to be seized to satisfy that personal guarantee, that wouldn't be something that would be realistically possible because you wouldn't own them, your trust would.

So it means effectively in that circumstance, you could sign a personal guarantee with impunity.

I'm not suggesting you do that.

I'm just giving you an example of what that would look like.

So that's what is meant by own nothing and control everything.

It's one of my famous sayings.

What I like to tag onto the back end of that is the second sentence of that speech, which was a trust is the best kept secret hidden in plain sight so the most effective way to try to protect your assets is to put back a barrier between you and your assets i.e if you don't own them they cannot be taken from you you cannot be sued for anything that you don't own it's impossible so this is a a brainstorming session we did just for a couple of minutes and um and we put down what those asset protection requirements may look like creditors lawsuits divorce settlements which is quite a big one protect your assets through a to a trust for divorce bankruptcy again it's not your assets that the trust government seizure unexpected heirs or claims um forced airship in in certain countries within the eu as well business risks once once your assets are placed within the trust they stay within the trust they're protected forever and that's the beauty that's why families that have got generational wealth maximize the opportunity with trust there's a very old saying where it says shirts shirt sleeves to shirt sleeves in three generations so the first generation makes it the second generation tend to make a bit more the third generation bust it tends to be you know 90 plus of what happens to successful wealth generators and trusts protect from that in the most effective way because they, one, keep assets together, they benefit from economies of scale, and they reduce the dilution and the risk that that has, and including, of course, the dilution through inheritance tax as well, if you're subject to that tax.

So why go for an international trust?

Right, so I'll speak about the UK here, just as an example.

We can speak about other countries as well in the Q&A session later.

But in the UK, for example, if I were to place a property within a trust, I would have to then pay an anniversary tax.

Every 10 years, I would pay a percentage value of that property as what's called an anniversary tax, which would be due to the government just simply because I placed that asset within the trust.

And any trust income that I would be beneficiary of would be taxed at 40% because it's an unearned income.

So these are the rules for a UK trust.

Now, if we look further abroad and further afield, and then we get to realise that some other countries have far more beneficial statuses.

For example, the famous ones, Guernsey, Jersey, Gibraltar, Malta, and my favourite of all, well, it's just popped up, Cyprus.

Cyprus International Trusts.

And I'll go into a little bit of detail as to why I think Cyprus is currently the best place.

So, asset protection in Cyprus.

Cyprus International Trusts it's written within the actual law within Cyprus that covers the trust itself which states that only the trust itself can be the actionable body that litigation or damages can be brought against so if you were to do something and you were to be sued if a court turned around and said well we understand you're not worth a great deal but your trust is worth an enormous amount of money for example we're going to open the trust to be claimed against in Cyprus that's illegal So the trustees would simply write back and say, this falls without your jurisdiction.

The answer is no, and it's fully protected.

They would breach the law to do otherwise.

So you've got complete asset protection, tax optimization.

In Cyprus, the tax regime on Cypriot International Trust is very friendly.

Effectively, there's a 0% tax on income tax, corporation tax, capital gains tax, inheritance tax.

Estate planning, it's very flexible.

You can also change the governing law in Cyprus. there's a provision within the structure to have the governing law to be your own domestic country.

So, for example, for my trust, my trust, the law that governs that is the English and Welsh law.

So estate planning becomes very effective.

You can also stipulate certain regulations when you create the trust deed and you can forecast and structure the estate planning that you want and the successions that you want at that time, which goes hand in hand with the legacy building.

Cypriot International Trusts allow this all to happen under a very protected, very secure, anonymous, if you're almost, regime.

When you do create a Cypriot International Trust, there is an official government register, and each trust is registered and given a unique number.

But that number and that information that is held, which is only four things, the name of the trust, the trustees, the settler and the beneficiaries, just the names of them.

That's held, and that's not a public information.

That can only be held if there's a suspicion of crime.

So if you became an arms dealer, basically, then that information could be requested and would be provided.

But there is no requirement to submit financial accounts because there's a 0% tax policy on separate international trusts.

They don't require that you submit accounts.

There's no requirement for it simply because it doesn't raise revenue.

So there's no requirement to submit accounts or provide any detailed information.

So in terms of anonymity and secured information and private information, Cyprus is very high up on that.

So that's why we recommend Cyprus as a very, very good location at this moment in time.

And it sits within the EU, so it's politically stable.

It's a member of NATO, so it's geographically stable.

And the law in Cyprus is based on UK and EU law, which is very established. so how to set up a separate international trust well it's easier than you think sometimes quite disappointingly so because once a trust deed is created then that gets sent to the registration authorities who simply register the name register the beneficiaries and register the settler and then they register the trustees now one of the trust one of the rules in cyprus when you set up a separate international trust is that one of the trustees is a Cypriot national.

And there are two reasons for that.

One, it creates wealth for Cyprus, which is why they have Cypriot international trusts.

The trusts in the finance sector now contributes to about 16% of the GDP of the country, which compared to 20 years ago was something like 96% tourism.

So once those things are created, you've got your trustee, you've got your trust deed, the rules of which you want to engage with this trust, you register it and then you place assets within the trust.

And while ever there's an asset within the trust, then the trust is deemed to be live, so to speak.

It's alive at that point.

And it never dies.

So unlike a UK trust, which has a maximum life of 125 years, whilst ever there are assets within a Cypriot International Trust, it's deemed to be active.

So it's an ad infinitum trust.

And this is great for estate planning because any assets that are owned by the trust get passed to beneficiary to beneficiary rather than ownership by one person to another.

So effectively, a trust, because it never dies, never faces inheritance tax.

So that makes a big difference.

Working for your trust.

This is where we take the concept a little bit further based on European and EU and, well, EU and each individual country's working laws and employment laws and tax laws as advised by our barristers within the UK and EU.

Go back, go back one, Joshua, please.

So working for your trust.

This is where we like to change people's mindset.

And what we advocate is that if you change your mindset from working for yourself or working for your company to create that income into your company or corporation or to you as an individual, which then leads you to the constraints of where most people fall, we advocate working for your trust.

Because now what you can create is an income stream into your trust from you as an individual or from you as your company.

And wouldn't it make sense to benefit from all the things that we've discussed that your trust can have that you can't as an individual?

So hence why we're big fans of working for your trust rather than you.

So this bit makes me laugh when it was posted up and said, well, this is the disclaimer we're putting in now.

Normally at this point when I'm speaking to people on an individual basis, I go through in great detail how the structure works without sort of going into the technicalities of the law and stuff. as described in the legal opinions that we obtain for people.

But we're obviously not going to give away the secret sauce.

So we're going to give an overview, which makes it relatively simple to understand and to follow as a principle, but isn't the exact mechanics of how it works.

So if anyone's got any questions of saying, well, you can't do this or you can't do that, please bear in mind that we are not in the position where we're now going to give away the exact blueprint of how you can go and do this without including us.

Because that's the name of the game, we want to keep our business alive.

So what do we do?

We create an individual who decides that what they want to do is to have protection and an income based within a trust.

So that individual can own a business and create a relationship between his trust and his business, whereby the income or the profit that's generated from his business is transferred quite lawfully and legally into the trust itself rather than being on the balance sheet or being held as a profit for the individual company or the individual themselves.

So what does this mean?

Well, it means that the profits that you generate are reduced and the profits are no longer generated within you or your business, but rather generated within your trust.

And we're quite open and quite transparent and we declare all those trusts as we do because we're not working in grey areas or in shadows here.

We're using the law and the law is structured and designed to allow this, to facilitate it.

So now what we have to remember is the trust is based in somewhere very friendly like Cyprus, where we are subjugated to the corresponding tax levels, which in this circumstance, if you were to go down the Cyprus route, could be as low as 0%, and usually are.

Then what we can do is place assets within that trust, and they're now protected.

What the trust can do in its relationship is either provide a means of funds back to the individual, which would be an income for the individual, or buy capital assets on behalf of that beneficiary so that they can enjoy the beneficial use of them.

So, for example, a property, a car.

The trust can also invest, and it can invest in anything ranging from Bitcoin, stocks, shares, property, well, exactly the same things that you as an individual or as a company can invest in.

Your trust can do that, but again, it's not subject to capital gains tax when it disposes of those assets.

So by effectively creating a link, which by transferring the intellectual property and the rights to earn from that intellectual property into the trust, we now have a revenue stream generated into the trust, which allows the trust to then buy assets, buy capital assets, invest in things for the benefit of the beneficiaries or for the benefit of the trust value itself.

And what does this mean?

It means that your business is also in a beneficial position because you're effectively extracting through the process the profits that your business would otherwise generate and those are being declared within the trust itself.

That should give you a rough overview of what this looks like and an interplay between the four parts that are involved.

So working for your trust tax benefits.

Now, for me, the tax benefits, yes, they're nice, but for me, this is about creating a legacy.

So whilst I'll talk about the benefits in terms of finance and structuring a business for efficiency, for me, the real gain in this is about creating a legacy for me and mine for generations to come.

So I'll get more excited talking about that, which may or may not appeal more or less to you guys, but talking about the tax benefits for the trust in Cyprus.

A Cypriot international trust, please feel free to Google this.

This is not a secret.

This is not some weird and wonderful account.

And if you just simply Google what are the tax rates for a Cypriot international trust for a non-Cypriot resident, this will be the answer that you'll get spread across thousands of returns.

So corporation tax is 0%.

Capital gains tax is 0%.

Inheritance tax is 0%.

And income tax is 0%. so effectively they're the fame the four main taxes and they're at 0 hence why we feel that cyprus is a very good place to put your trust there are also some benefits that come with this so we get asked these questions quite a lot and some of the the explanations that we get are linked very much around locational independence so we get asked the question which is about you know why should i do this with regards to an opportunity to set up a company in dubai or uruguay or panama or you know paraguay for example and the simple answer is if you're happy to up sticks and just leave the country that you're in and make sure that you spend at least 183 nights or more away from home effectively um then nothing you can go and do those things there's not a problem you know that's that's quite good for me that seems very short-sighted because ultimately most people want friends family her relationship children stability um at some stage within their life and then once you diminish that ability to be effectively a nomad or digital nomad i think is the is the the current trend that or current name that covers that then you lose the ability to gain the benefits that that that comes with so setting up a trust means that you're locationally independent because the trust is in a fixed location and we're taking advantage of fixed rules so to me it's a lot more stable i can rely on this for a very long period of time you know so can the clients rely on this for a very long period of time if for example the rules were to change in cyprus we can simply move the trust we can literally move a trust overnight a trust is a piece of paper which is quite surprising for most people they envisage it as a as a bank or a bank vault it's not you know it um it's it's a it's an agreement and that agreement creates a separate legal entity and that separate legal entity can enjoy the benefits that that we can as businesses and individuals so it can open bank accounts wherever in the world it likes for example so you have the locational independence You can travel to and from countries with impunity.

You don't have to spend a number of days away each year.

You don't have to be limited for in the UK, for example, 90 days.

If you spend more than 90 nights in the UK, you become a tax resident.

In Europe, it's 183 nights, I think, that you have to spend away.

You don't have that.

What this also allows that the other processes don't have is to build a generational wealth.

And what does that look like?

Well, it means you get to control the assets.

You know, sometimes a trust is called the arm beyond the grave.

And it does so because when the settler creates the trust, they determine the rules.

And those rules can be, for example, like in my trust, only my direct descendancy can ever benefit from the trust.

So that means if my daughter or son were to marry and then get divorced, and they would have otherwise inherited my assets normally, they won't lose half the assets in a divorce.

They can create an income from that trust, which would never be considered theirs, and it's discretionary, so it can never be claimed against even from creditors.

So we get to control this central pot that gets to feed the family, if you like, for generations to come, and it just grows.

And you can also do some quite clever things with trusts.

For example, you can take out life insurance policies that the trust becomes the beneficiary of.

So if anything untoward does happen, the trust becomes the beneficiary of that.

Likewise, if you have built up a wealth over time and then none of us are mortal and heaven forbid an accident was to happen, but if something were to happen to us, which would ultimately cause our death, then our estate will be subject to an inheritance tax, which depending on where you are can be 40, 50%.

So that's a massive dilute when it comes to the value of the estate that you pass on.

A trust is not subject to that because the trust never dies.

So giving half of the wealth away every generation is not something that a trust does.

So it allows this building of generational wealth.

So you and yours get looked after for a very long time.

That's the bit that excites me is the asset protection.

Once it's in the trust, once an asset is within a trust, unless you want it out, it doesn't come out.

It just stays there.

It's utterly protected.

It cannot be taken from you.

And so you build this generational wealth to help people.

And that's the bit that really gets me excited.

Don't get me wrong, it does help with the position with regards to taxes and fees and all that kind of stuff.

It certainly helps.

But the goal being to build this legacy, to build this asset protection, to get these protections, these opportunities that can be achieved by using the trust.

And other structures just simply don't have that facility.

You know, being a digital nomad does not create generational wealth.

It creates generational problems because if you continue it, your kids are moving around every few months.

Right.

Now, as part of the service that we have is we have legal protection and legal opinion.

And this is really important.

Every client that we have, we provide them with, or well, they get provided with, should I say, a legal opinion from a top UK tax chambers.

And those tax chambers employ only tax barristers.

And the barristers, we use a specialist in EU tax and law.

And they're perhaps the most prestigious tax chambers within the UK.

And we obtain a legal opinion directly from the tax chambers from each client.

Now, that gives some very important things.

First, it means that what the things that we are discussing, that they are completely legal, completely lawful.

Because the first question that people normally ask us is, is this legal?

The answer is absolutely yes.

It's been done for hundreds of years.

It's been done by generations.

You know, Angela Merkel, for example, has an offshore trust.

You know, we could go through the prime ministers of the UK.

They all have offshore trust.

Most wealthy generational families have a trust of one description or another.

So we create this legal opinion.

This legal opinion explains very explicitly under which laws that we claim the ability and we claim the rights to exercise.

So yes, it's completely lawful.

The second thing that that produces for the client is professional indemnity.

So each barrister, a barrister, for those of us not familiar with what a barrister is, a barrister is a lawyer or a solicitor, but not all solicitors or lawyers are barristers.

Barristers are called to the bar.

It's the highest qualification.

So in the UK and in the EU, if you're not a qualified barrister, you cannot be a judge.

You cannot represent people at the highest level. and a barrister is always considered an expert in law where a lawyer or a solicitor is not so barristers are the highest qualifications that a lawyer can be and barristers always have professional indemnity like doctors so if they give you an opinion and that proves to be incorrect then they can be sued and damages claimed against because they gave an incorrect opinion okay so you have professional indemnity insurance so effectively the barrister is putting their neck on the line every time they provide an opinion what this also does is for anybody that sits within the eu this gives them a statutory defense which protects them from any fines or penalties and this is how it works if you obtain and act upon expert advice and a barrister is always considered an expert in law if you act upon that that advice you cannot be fined or penalized because you've taken all reasonable care.

And a director of business, an owner of business has to provide or prove reasonable care.

And the specialist advice from a tax barrister that specialises in EU and tax law, there is no higher qualification, there is no higher expert that you can engage to provide that advice.

So you are taking all reasonable steps because you cannot take any further steps, cannot get a higher power to give you an opinion.

A barrister is as high as it gets.

So if that barrister gives you an opinion and says, yes, you can do this and here's the reason why, and they put their name to it and it's from the barrister themselves or their legal chambers, you are now protected from fines or penalties because you've acted in good faith upon expert advice.

So it's almost like an insurance policy for two things.

It prevents you from having fines and penalties levied against you and it gives you a recourse should there be any discrepancies or incorrect advice.

So we provide everybody with exceptional legal protection and we use the foremost tax chambers within the UK.

And we provide that at a very reasonable cost compared to if you were to go and do this yourself.

So what we're looking to do is to lower the barrier of entry, to spread this information, to bridge the knowledge gap because when we talk to people, or if you were to talk to people and ask them, what is a trust?

Most people will understand that there is a thing called a trust and that they exist.

And the opinion generally that we get in terms of feedback is they're for extremely wealthy families.

And they're almost like a pension, so they lock your money away, which couldn't be further from the truth on both accounts.

A trust is not for extremely wealthy people.

You know, it benefits an enormous amount of people.

And most people should be made aware of it, but it's almost like a little secret.

So the goal of Arca Wealth is to bridge that knowledge gap.

I'm passionate about that.

I want people to understand what they are.

So what can Arca Wealth do for you?

And this is where I'd like to hand over to Reid.

I've gone through the bits there, and I'm sure there's been many, many questions that you'll want to fire at me through in Q&A.

And I'd be quite happy to sit here until midnight, because this is a topic that I'm very passionate and engaged with and want to spread sort of the word on.

So at this point, I'm going to hand over to Reid, who's a member of our advisory and sales team, and he'll tell you what he and his team can do for you.

Yeah, thanks, James.

What Arca Wealth can do for you is obviously we're going to help and consult you on your personal infrastructure now.

Find out what that is.

Find out if we can help you add an extra layer to that in terms of a Cypriot International Trust. and if you engage us as a client, we're going to work with you to set that trust up, structure that trust in a way that works for you, and like James mentioned, make your rule book, facilitate those rules and lay those out.

And then, again, as James just mentioned, offer that legal protection, that legal opinion, so you've got the peace of mind that it's all just and fair and within the law.

And the people we do that for are people living in Europe, of European citizenship, business owners who are generating a gross profit of more than €200,000.

And if you fit that kind of avatar, you're someone we can help.

And if you look here on the screen now, if you scan this QR code, it'll take you to a form and to book a call in with me personally.

So we can discuss your personal infrastructure now and what you've got going on, what you're looking to solve. and then I can advise and work with you on how to set a trust structure up in a way that will solve those problems and hopefully going forward to achieve everything James has just laid out.

Now, I think for the last 20 or 30 minutes, we're going to take some questions.

I'll give those questions to James, I guess, as he is the expert here, rather than me.

So if you've got any questions, you can put them in the Q&A function.

And we'll get started with that.

Are you ready for that, James?

Yeah, sure.

So we've got a few questions already.

There's a few of them that are on a similar topic, and I think we can answer it in one shot, two birds in one stone.

Okay.

So there's a few questions here regarding, obviously, the legislation in Cyprus, and are the government going to make any changes to how those trusts can operate and survive?

And if they did so, what would that look like, And how would that affect what we do and what we've put in place in terms of a client's trust?

Okay, right.

First of all, there has been changes recently in Cyprus.

And the only change actually which has been covered is the sanctions which comply with EU regulations against Russian oligarchs and Russian wealth. the embargoes and the sanctions that were brought against Russian peoples, basically.

So that's been the only change that's gone on since 1999, I believe.

So they've got 23, 24 years worth of unchanged current legislation.

It's not projected or not understood and not expected by any people that we work with, with the trustee companies out there.

And bearing in mind that every trustee in Cyprus has to either be an accountant or a lawyer. and then become a qualified trustee.

So they're all professional trustees.

That's one of the reasons why you have to have a Cypriot trustee.

It's a wealth generation tool because you cannot have a Cypriot trust without employing a Cypriot national.

We obviously get heavily discounted rates for the trustees and work with some of the best people out there.

But nonetheless, we're employing directly Cypriot nationals.

So this is a big revenue stream for Cyprus as a nation.

It counts for about 16% of the GDP.

So there is no plans or nothing that I'm aware of at this moment for any changes to take place.

It simply wouldn't be in the country's economy interest.

If, however, that was to happen, and let's say that Cyprus, like Dubai recently just announced that there was going to be a 9% corporation tax.

Or 12%, 9%, sorry.

So, for example, if the tax laws did change, then that's not an issue because we can literally move the location of a trust overnight.

So we could look at then Guernsey, Jersey, Malta, Gibraltar, other locations, including sort of British Virgin Isles, Grand Cayman, Cook Islands, Panama, Guernsey, wherever.

It's very flexible.

But there is no plans that I'm aware of for things to change in Cyprus.

And Cyprus is very politically stable because it sits within the EU.

So it is governed by the same rules that cover the other 26 countries that are a member of the EU and Britain for that extent, because although we've had Brexit, we're still governed by European law.

Yeah.

Okay.

Another one we've got, again, I think this is a question we've got three or four times and we can roll it into one.

And I think it's a question we've all probably answered to clients as well, James, is, so what is considered as intellectual property?

Okay.

Who deems what that is and what it's not?

Right.

So first off, I'm going to say this sits within the disclaimer umbrella, but I'm going to answer this question anyway, so it's easy to understand.

Intellectual property is your ideas, thoughts, creativity and the output from that.

And everybody under law has a presumed right to their own intellectual property.

So if you create something, if you draw a picture or write a computer program, that is deemed to be your intellectual property in the same way that when you turn up to work.

As a director of business, you've got certain obligations.

You have to name people of significant control. you have to name the shareholders as a director you have to do annual returns you have to pay your creditors you have to pay your taxes you have to list the profit and loss and the balance sheet of the company there are certain obligations by law that we have to do they're called directorial responsibilities as a director as a shareholder of business that's what you take as the part and parcel of that parole none of that however is how you make money or all those things cost you time and they do not generate property what profit sorry what generates you the cash is your networking your knowledge your skills your opportunity to you know your identity of an opportunity for example the network of people that you can call upon your way that you can make decisions and know your market and spot trends all the things that you bring to the table each day each day to add value to your business those things those thoughts those that knowledge that know-how that added value is what makes you profit and all those things those thoughts are your intellectual property all of them that's what intellectual property is and you have a presumed right under law to your own intellectual property that's not up for debate it's your yeah yeah another another question we've got is do you have to reside in europe the whole time to do this i think we touched on it of being locationally independent obviously we help european clients but it doesn't mean they have to technically stay in europe does it no no you're quite right you you create effectively geographic independence.

So it's way, way more flexible.

Trusts are extremely flexible.

They're like a company that you get to make up the rules that you want to obey to.

It's really strange because it's a separate legal entity like a company.

In fact, company law is based on trust law.

We're aware of that, right?

So the European Union and the UK, for that matter, our company laws are based on trust law.

But what they did, they made it compulsory register compulsory to provide information.

So for the purposes of taxing you, that's why it was done.

So companies register, that's why we have Companies House, GmbH, and so on and so forth.

This is why we have the ability to submit taxes each year, which is mandatory, so submit profit and loss, so we can be taxed.

And we have to comply with the Companies Act, which is 130 years old this year.

When we create a trust, we get to create those rules.

So a trust has way way more flexibility we can create those rules that we play with so it's it's much more geographically friendly you don't have to pin yourself down you get to create the rules of the game fantastic another another question we've got it's a question i get a lot i'm sure you do james is you know there's certain european countries that have certain things in place um to forbid tax avoidance measurements, which I think some people get misconstrued that maybe this is one of them.

So how would that, you know, is a trust a tax?

You know, can we answer that?

Let me put this sort of in the simplest way that I can.

There are two things with tax.

And again, you know, I prefer the legacy creation stuff, but tax is very important.

I know it's going to get a lot of questions raised because it's a flagship thing that's important to people.

There are two types of tax sort of manipulation, for want of a better word.

There's tax avoidance, which is perfectly legal.

Tax avoidance is absolutely legal.

So, for example, when your accountant says to you, we're going to pay you by dividend, excuse me, we're going to pay you by dividend because you don't have to pay as much tax, that's avoiding tax arising in the first instance.

That's completely legal.

In fact, it's a cornerstone.

In fact, I can't remember if we said it in Lord Byron or Bison or something.

I can't remember.

But it's a European and UK cornerstone where it says a person has the ability or should arrange their affairs so they pay less tax than they ought to.

In other words, it's your responsibility to lawfully minimize the liability that you have.

And that stands for each country.

That's a pillar within the EU and recognized as such.

So tax avoidance is completely legal.

Tax evasion is illegal.

Tax evasion is when you've earned money and you try and hide it somewhere or don't declare it.

That's not lawful.

But if you use the laws to structure your company in a way that the tax doesn't arise or your affairs so that the tax doesn't arise in the first instance, that's completely lawful.

Completely lawful.

And a trust has been used by many, many people and many, many generations to structure that and structure that through estate planning, through individual circumstances, right?

The benefit at that moment in time rather than in the future.

So does that mean that this is illegal?

No, we absolutely provide you a legal opinion to explain to you why it is completely lawful.

And the other thing, there are countries within the EU that don't recognise trusts themselves within their domestic law.

So that, for example, could be Germany, France, just as examples, Holland.

But those countries signed up to the Hague Convention in 1998, I think it was.

It was brought to table by the Dutch, actually, where they all formally recognise the existence of trusts.

And whilst they may not domestically have trusts within their own legal system, it's recognised that if a trust is held in a jurisdiction where they are formally recognised, then that is recognised and held and given the same respect as it would if it was a member state.

So if you were a German and held a trust in Cyprus, German authorities, whether that being tax companies, business, whatever, it will be recognised under law as being legitimate, even though you couldn't own a trust within Germany itself.

You'd have to own a foundation, for example.

But it is still recognised because what we get quite often is, well, trusts aren't a thing in our country.

It doesn't matter.

It's immaterial.

It's recognised and that's the European laws.

And there are two cornerstones, two pillars within the EU that cement this.

And one is Treaty Freedom EU within the EU.

So 49, TFEU 49, which is the right to establish, which means that every citizen within the EU and the UK has the right to establish under the same benefits that any national member would have for that particular member state.

So you can set up a trust in Cyprus or you can set up a company.

I could set up a company in Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, Cyprus, you know, any EU country as easily as I could set one up in my own.

And everyone else has those same benefits too.

So we have a right to establish under Treaty of Freedom EU 49.

And the other one is TFEU 63, which is the right to move to freedom of movement of capital, which means I can transfer my money unimpeded between any member state as well.

And any member state and third party as well, and third party country.

So my money cannot be withheld.

So you're absolutely protected under those terms.

So can you have a trust?

Is it legal?

Is it recognised regardless of which EU country you live in?

Absolutely, yes.

Fantastic.

What about when we're starting a trust?

Obviously, to start a trust, you have to, you know, we mentioned putting an asset into it, which will deem it alive and living.

What are the limitations?

Can that asset be, can it be cash?

Does it have to be a house?

What would someone put into a trust to get it to be aligned?

An asset is deemed as something of value.

So, for example, placing the rights to earn from intellectual property within a trust could be an asset.

Normally, what is covered is a minimal fee, so €500 to €800, something along those lines.

That's then transferred into the trust and sits in deposit.

That usually sits actually in deposit with the trustee's law firm, the legal firm or the accounting firm that we select the trustees from.

So it's held on their balance so it can be demonstrated as being shown to be in and not therefore removable by anyone afterwards.

So at that point, the trust becomes live and you can place any assets in and out of the trust, like you could a business or an individual.

So it can be property, shares, Bitcoin, cash, cars, anything.

And if you set up a trust correctly, then the trust has the ability to invest in depreciating assets as well.

So, for example, a trust could purchase a car instead of you purchasing the car, then the trust would have the running costs of that car to meet as well, as opposed to you as an individual.

Fantastic.

What about if someone wanted to move, say, a house into the trust, and that house had a mortgage, and if it didn't have a mortgage, what about those two aspects?

Okay.

So it's very difficult to place a property that's encumbered by a mortgage into a trust with the simple reason that you're changing the owner status so the bank that loaned the cash for you to buy that property that gave you the mortgage you'd have to declare it to them usually under their terms and conditions of lending so you'd have to declare that and they could take a dim view of that because ultimately now you're not the owner someone else is the owner so they would probably want to refinance it with the new owner so there are ways and means that you can do that if it's unincome but of course you can transfer the asset because it's yours into the trust not an issue but if you've got a mortgage on it it can prove difficult but what you can do is transfer the equity of the property into a trust so right so the balance between what's outstanding on the mortgage and the value you can change you can transfer that equity into the trust fantastic what about if we set up a trust um the settler formats of rules of the trust and then they want to change those rules maybe they want to take a beneficiary out or add a beneficiary and um what does that look like that's simply um a change to the trust if they're called a variation of deed and that's something that the trustees would do they would send out a variation of deed they would agree you would agree it's signed it's done it's flexible it can be in short it can be done you can change the rules they're not written in stone however a trust deed is the thing that people get wrong the most when they set up a trust if in under trust law if you do not give a trust the specific powers that it needs it's deemed not to have them because there is no framework like a company's act or a company's law that you adhere to you have to prescribe those and if you don't give it certain powers then it cannot do them so for example if you don't give a trust the power to pay for a minor for example in advance and in full then it's deemed under law that any expense for a minor has to be paid first by an individual and then reclaimed yeah but but by providing the rights to do otherwise now you can within the trust deed that trust can pay up front for things like tuition fees or you know a computer or whatever it is for that for a minor um and it's in full up front so without without creating the correct trustee you can create problems so that's it's important to get that right because you won't know until people don't know they've got it wrong and they don't have the power until someone questions it and then they say well i've done this particular thing and they say well your trust can't do that therefore you've breached it and therefore you always cash and so it's important to get that trustee absolutely right yeah yeah and it's you know we're talking about the trust owning asset a question we've got on the Q&A and we get it a lot as well is obviously you don't own those assets personally anymore is there a risk that those assets can be taken away from you even if they're in a trust if maybe you're giving up ownership what does that look like and how are you still in control?

Well if effectively if for example the trust should be the person that's living in it there is that but effectively that the title of it would sit with the trustee.

Now, again, one of the rules with the Cypriot Trust is that the trustees are professional.

And you can also put a protector.

So, for example, and you can have more than one trustee.

You know, at least one has to be a Cypriot National.

So you could also have your friend Bob from the coffee shop as a trustee that would just simply not sign it and then it couldn't happen.

So you can have multiple signatures, but you can also have what's called a protector of a trust.

And the protector of a trust has one power, and that is to remove the trustees.

So with immediate effect, a protector can remove a trustee from a trust so if you are disagreeing or your trustee is not doing you're not cooperating with you in the way that you expect they can be removed but effectively you can put controls in for joint signatories or um control mechanisms or within the trustee that that stop the trustee from doing that and don't forget again they're professionals at this so that's their that's their job so if they do something that's untoward they can be sued but bearing in mind the trustees normally work for sort of um medium or or quite large law firms um the trustees are provided by the law firm so it's just in reality never going to happen i've never ever come across a case where a trustee has tried to run off with with money and and bearing in mind they've got rushing oligarchs and stuff you know as as clients then i don't think it'd be our money to run off with you know i think they'd probably take someone else before they'd take my altruism.

Yeah, yeah.

What about if someone sets a trust up, can their family members put their assets into the trust if they're listed as a certain beneficiary or user?

Yeah, assets can be placed within the trust.

What we advocate to people is create a family trust so that it's generational.

So, yeah, absolutely.

Multiple assets can be placed within a trust.

And again, they become the title of the trust once placed into it.

Yeah.

A lot of questions we have as well is, Obviously, if someone's got shares in a business, would they put those shares into the trust or would it be beneficial for them to keep it from the trust and we do it a different way?

Well, circumstances vary.

So each circumstance is usually taken on its individual merits when we dive deeper into this with clients as part of the process.

But I'm not a fan of that.

And the reason being that there is more of a risk of your business failing than there is your trust failing.

Because a trust collects assets and collects income.

It doesn't do anything that's risky.

It doesn't put its name to something that could effectively make it called bankrupt.

If you put the shares of the business within the trust, then what you're doing is you're sort of putting the Trojan horse within the gates of Troy.

So that could effectively lead your trust then to be open to damages or claims.

Now, the way that we operate and the way that we work and the way that we can sort of bespoke things for clients means that you would get all the benefits of having the shares as if they were in the business, but within the trust, sorry, the business shares within the trust, but without actually having to put them in the trust, which makes then the reasoned argument for placing them within the trust, no, it makes it a moot point because there is no benefit.

So as part of the secret sauce, if you like, then we explain how that works.

So it's in theory a great idea, but in practice unnecessary.

Right, right.

And say someone had their own business and they were taking a salary from that.

What, and they moved that into the trust and we structured it a different way and they've now got money in their trust.

Is there any limits that the beneficiary can benefit from?

Is there a limit on what that means?

No, you get the same allowances as you would normally from any derived income.

But there are ways, and again, we've bespoke this as part of a deeper dive with the individual and customise it for them.

So there are ways and means in which you can structure things that you can benefit from your personal circumstances, but they're too wide and too varied to go into exactly what they would be and list them prescriptively now.

But yes, what we do is we take a view for that individual and optimize their position.

So effectively, we make them extremely tax efficient.

We make them extremely asset protected.

And we create a position where the legacy is defined and controlled, but yet subjects change if they want to at some point.

And beneficiaries, for example, as children appear or grandchildren appear.

Yeah.

Another question we've got is what happens if our co-wealth disappears?

Well, we don't hold any funds for anybody at any time.

So that would have zero impact on individuals.

And because we create bespoke trusts for individuals, they would still continue their relationship with the trustee.

So effectively, all that would happen is the person in the middle that facilitates the link between the businesses and the trust and the profit-generating entity in the trust, we would go.

But I'm quite sure there are other people.

I mean, we've got no intentions to.

But if we were to disappear and go and put our feet up and retire in or win a Euro Millions lottery or something, then I'm quite sure someone would be interested in taking our business over.

So it's not our intention.

It's not on the cards.

But effectively, not a lot would happen.

It wouldn't change the relationship, the direct relationship you have with the barrister and the legal representation you have.

That's direct. it wouldn't affect the relationship you have with your trustees and your trust because that's created to be direct.

So in short, not a lot in terms of the asset and the trust.

No, no.

Another question we've got is, how does double taxation treaties come into this kind of trust structure?

I like this because it's normally a pleasant surprise for people.

So people think when they look into stuff, double tax treaties means that you can pay taxes twice. doesn't it means that you're protected from paying tax twice so most european countries in fact most countries have double tax treaties with one another um cyprus certainly has double tax treaties with every country that sits within the eu and the uk so what that means is if you pay tax in one place you don't pay in another you don't pay the same tax twice and taxes taxes paid where it's generated and as it's generated in cyprus we've all seen what the what the rates are yeah yeah and say someone had a trust and they had their assets in the trust and their capital in the trust good and they say they wanted to gain some kind of line of credit and they didn't have any collateral to kind of guarantee that line of credit but do they still get a line of credit or could the trust get a line of credit for them well the trust can get a line of credit in the same way that businesses and individuals can so my question would be um first and foremost in that circumstance what asset is it and what you know what's it for and do you need to buy it or can your trust buy it because if the trust has the assets and the the capacity to buy it then of course if it buys it then it's not subject to capital gains if you were to dispose of it any income that it generates is now tax-free and it's absolutely protected because it's not your asset it's the trust and the wealth that generated from the trust just grows the value of the trust entity but a trust can apply for credit lines on its own merit it proves an income we create an income stream into that trust and the same way that you produce accounts if you were a business and said to a business bank can I have a business loan you can do the same things it's more bespoke so you wouldn't walk into a high street bank and say I want a business loan I own a trust or I want a trust loan I own a trust you know it's it's more established for generally as as as obvious as it sounds when i say it but because trusts are utilized by wealthy families the more specialist banks and and more highly specialized banks so you get a much more bespoke service actually it's often yeah yeah because you're speaking to a human rather than a than a yeah a representative in a call center you know so in in many respects it's easier to do with that but again each thing on its on its own merits you would as an individual you could show income or you could show no income your company could show income or show no income or your trust can show income or no income or any blend of the three just depend depending on what it is that you want um then we can bespoke that outcome for you and from there we can look and we have we have we have contacts and liaisons that we can put people in touch with to establish I think that answers another question we've got about Cyprus is stacked and how banks respond to their status and if banks are willing to work with Cypriot Trust.

Yeah, yeah.

There's no difference between a trust and a business in terms of an entity or you as an individual as an entity.

If you think about it and you said, right, okay, there's an entity, a legal entity that stands on its own accord that stands on its own two feet that has a a regular income and this is it this is its exposure this is the outgoings that it has and this is the wealth that it has this is the the risk that you associate with it is that a good or a bad risk well you know it looks on paper it's quite a good one yeah yeah um how about cyprus ensuring confidentiality protection of its identity and trust assets and things like that.

How does it look at them?

Well there is no register for trust assets.

Cyprus as a regulatory board as a governmental regulatory board records four things.

That's the name of the trust which if you were to name it you know John Humphreys Trust, Family Trust then obviously someone went to Google search an asset and it come back as John Humphreys then you would see John Humphreys owns it but if you were to call it Blue square trust then it would come back as blue square and who's that because you know so depending on whether you want the kudos or the anonymity you choose your name with with caution you know um but it records the name of the trust it and this is bearing in mind someone has to be suspected of criminal activity before any of these four elements are disclosed yeah so it's the name of the trust the trustee of the trust the settler of the trust and who the beneficiaries of the trust are that's it so it's just those four details there is no list of assets other than the trustee now part of the reason why we always use lawyers as trustees in cyprus is because you have what's called client privilege so under no circumstances is a is a client as a is a client's information disclosable to any but any authority under any circumstances for the lawyer that that you work with.

It's called client privilege.

So no information, if you choose it to not be disclosed, could ever be disclosed without your consent.

And bearing in mind, there's no requirement to produce annual reports or submit annual accounts.

There is no register of anything that's sat within the trust or any profit that it's generated.

So your anonymity is pretty much guaranteed.

Guaranteed, yeah.

And say the client's got its chosen trustee, which is a separate national, as we've mentioned before, how can we put to bed people's kind of fear of the trustee running off of their money or the trustee accessing their trust or something like this without them knowing or kind of untowardness like that?

Well, you can simply have dual signatory requirements on any bank transfers or any assets that the trust has or any movement of assets.

So more than one person has to sign for it, which utterly prevents that.

You can put bank mandates onto the bank, will not transfer the cash.

You can put mandates on the trust themselves.

But what we have to bear in mind is if this was a UK lawyer, bearing in mind when you sell your house, the money that doesn't exist actually until you sign the mortgage deed or whatever, that you pay and swap the funds with the solicitors are in escrow.

So there is the same risk of that solicitor running off with your cash when you buy a house as there is with a trust deed. you're running it you know it's it's it's so minute that it's almost not worth the discussion i've never ever known it because it's almost impossible to do and the thing is if they did that then the board standards that cover the regulations with interests and the companies that work for them the company would have to stand the loss anyway because they're a representative of that company so it would be that company that creates the theft but the individual that would be the criminal so the company would have to reimburse you you'd be you're protected that's why they have professional trustees and bear in mind you know trustees are quite well paid it's a good job people want it and they would be immediately struck off and go to prison for a long time you know the the juice is just not worth the squeeze you know so i've never heard of it i've never come across it i've never even come off across anything remotely like it no and if if say someone had a trust and they had capital in that trust and the trust wanted to buy an asset has it got free reign to purchase as it wishes or does it need to justify that purchase or can it you you have to satisfy two people so the the settler has to agree within the creation of the trust that those and the particular types of assets can be can be purchased so that could be a depreciating asset for example or a speculative investment as opposed to limited to only assets that will grow that have zero risk, like shares or limited risk, like shares, stocks, bonds, houses, that kind of thing.

Then the other person that has to agree is the beneficiary has to want it.

So the settler has to be able to grant it and want to grant it, and the beneficiary has to want it.

Now, bearing in mind that's usually the same person, it's quite possible to have that conversation on the toilet.

So, you know, you basically have a conversation, do I want something?

Am I willing to grant it?

Because you usually are the settler and the beneficiary.

So, yeah, I have decided I want a car.

I have decided I want a second home.

I have decided I want to buy Bitcoins.

Yeah.

And then the person that acts upon that is your trustee, which is effectively like the PA, the beneficiaries.

Yeah.

And how does VAT come into play when they're making purchases?

Is that just subject to where they're buying it and those added taxes in that jurisdiction?

Yeah, that's local.

We have zero control on that because VAT changes country by country.

So you're subject to VAT in that location like everybody else is.

Yeah, and I think kind of the last few questions, but again, they all come into one, is detail on transference of assets into the trust and the kind of tax liability on that, especially if we're talking about houses and things like that.

Yeah, well, we have certain ways that are part of a secret sauce, if you like.

Yeah, if we tell somebody how to do this, then they're going to go, you know, use my language.

You're like, hell, I didn't realize they could do that.

Maybe we can talk on the possibility.

Okay, so on the possibilities, you can quite easily, by relying on the same laws that large institutions rely on, put yourself in a position where you can transfer assets within a separate international trust without creating or exposing yourself to capital gains tax or inheritance tax as you place them in, or an anniversary tax once they're placed within that trust itself.

So that is a reality.

Without telling you how to do that, yes, we can do that.

In a normal circumstance, as you dispose of the asset, you'd be subject to IHT or CGT or both.

But you can create processes by utilising the same exemptions and the same laws that large institutions use, which you're entitled to just as much as they are, to create a nil tax liability on the transfer of assets.

A question we've got, quite a specific question.

What measures do Cyprus have in place to protect the trust assets in the event of legal disputes or creditor claims, both within Cyprus or internationally?

Okay, so creditor claims must be brought within two years to the trust itself in Cyprus, and it has to be as a result of actions taken by the trust.

Okay.

Okay, so bearing in mind the company or the individual doesn't sit within the trust.

The trust just collects the money.

So if you were to drive down a high street and hit someone on a zebra crossing in your car and they sue you for damages, because the trust wasn't driving, the trust can't be sued. so you protect it.

It's very difficult to create a situation or think of a situation where the trust, because of its own actions, would be liable.

The only thing I can think of would be potentially mortgage fraud if you lied about the amount of income that the trust was generated or the assets held within the trust.

But other than that, it's very hard to understand a position where the trust itself will be subjugated to damages or liabilities because actions will need to be brought not to the individual that benefits or settles the trust, but by the trust itself.

And any claims, oh, by the way, any claims brought against the trust must have happened in Cyprus and be a direct result of the trust and must be brought within two years.

Yeah.

Fantastic.

And a very simple question for us, but maybe some people would like some clarity on it. as the settler can they decide the percentages or kind of reward or what each beneficiary would get even on a kind of bi-monthly basis say the trust was generating a certain amount of money and it had four or five beneficiaries the settler would then decide what they each get yeah you can set the rules and it's completely flexible the ways in which you can customise and bespoke it and actually create the rules to best suit your individual circumstances are limited only by your imagination you know realistically so if when we have a conversation down the line if this is something that a client of ours takes on board we have these conversations about right what does this look like for you what does it look like for your family how would you like the income to be distributed what flexibility would you like that would you like that in a lump sum to be distributed from that point onwards or would you like it to be pre-prescribed under what circumstances do you We go into all these details.

And if we're talking about afterlife events, then we have something which is called a letter of wishes, which effectively is a request to trustees where you say, right, in the event of my death, I want these things to happen.

And because the assets are owned by the trust rather than the individual, it almost negates the need for a will if you utilize the trust properly because the assets that the individual acquires should be in their trust.

And then, of course, you're not subject to inheritance tax.

Yeah.

Of course.

So yes, the flexibility is absolutely there.

And there are some very surprisingly obvious and inobvious ways in which you can control that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And say assets are placed into the Cypriot trust.

What, you know, obviously that has an effect on someone's personal net worth.

And so how is ownership defined when the trust holds everything?

Does that mean, I think we've discussed it, we'll clarify, that means a person that the set of our own is Nothing as such.

You become J.D.

Rockefeller.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Or nothing, control everything.

No.

It's, yeah, that'd be the point.

You know, nothing's at risk.

That which is not yours cannot be taken from you.

No, no, no.

One, we've only got a couple of questions left.

I think this is another question that's going to fall into that secret sauce category.

So I'll read it out to you.

We can kind of suggest what to do next.

But it's more, could we explain more on the tax liability if someone was to receive money from the trust?

I think that's something that would be giving away the secret, wouldn't we?

Well, it depends on the nature and the structure and what the revenue stream is defined as, basically.

And there are various different ways that you can look at that under different law and different circumstances.

So that would be something which would be in a detailed conversation.

So that's something.

But we've discussed the applicable rates for Cyprus. and income is determined by the individual almost on a case-by-case and merit-by-merit circumstance.

But, yeah, that would be part of the detail that we have with clients in detail and explain the whole process of that as we go into a deeper dive.

This is not a session to tell everybody how to replicate our business and what we effectively have paid hundreds of thousands of pounds in legal fees and things to sort of determine.

This is to sort of spread the information and say, these are the things that you can do.

These are the things that people that have had established wealth within their families have done for generations and still continue to do.

If we had this conversation, for example, in Westminster or Knightsbridge, and we had conversations about trust, people would know exactly what we're talking about.

They would know where to go and get one.

They would say, yes, we have one.

This is what it looks like.

But the vast majority of people, we don't have that because we don't have the family institutional wealth.

And the history that goes with that, you know, most people that generate new wealth literally go from shirt sleeves to shirt sleeves in three generations.

It's 90% plus that do that cycle.

And what we're saying is, right, this is this is a time.

Don't fall into that category.

Protect your wealth.

Create it.

Create it generationally.

Protect your assets.

You know, make sure that, you know, most entrepreneurs have failed usually multiple times before they find something that's successful.

Very rarely do people go out and find a winning business formula straight away on the first attempt.

So why would you expose yourself to that same risk with the money that you've made, that you have?

This is a way to negate that, protect your assets, protect your income, create generational wealth and become extremely tax efficient.

Yeah.

And what about if, you know, a lot of people ask the question as well, is the trust owning assets directly or owning assets through a holding structure, which a lot of people, I think, have a little bit of confusion on.

You can utilize a holding structure.

And again, this is part of the ongoing advice that we do and the access to professionals in the finance and the legal field that we have.

So, for example, it could be that just a UK citizen, for example, decides they want a Cypriot trust and they place assets and funds within the Cypriot trust, and then that Cypriot trust decides to buy property within the UK, buy to let, for example.

Normally, if the properties would pay that cash directly to the Cypriot trust, there would be a withholding tax.

So the way to benefit that would then to be set up a holding company within the UK that the trust would deal with, and that would be the recipient of the money, and then that would pay its fees and structure in a way that that then gets directly paid back to the trust in Cyprus.

So depending on the structure of what it is, we take advice and pass that advice on, and that advice comes from the highest level, the highest levels of availability for tax advice within the UK, specific tax and january barristers.

So we would structure that in accordance with their advice.

So it could be that a holding company is utilised.

Most people get confused with this because when we look on the web, we see all these things about you want a holding company in Europe and then set up a trust in either Dubai or any version of a company in Dubai and a trust in Paraguay and then you need to get citizenship in Uganda or Uruguay or Panama or whatever it is, American Cook Islands or BVI's or something like that.

And it's nonsense.

And all this about create a holding company, The difference between what we do and what is advocated in that structure is, one, you don't have the ability to locate yourself where you'd want to be located by utilising a non-domiciled status.

And secondly, the biggest difference is about £300,000 worth of legal advice.

Yeah.

The reason people don't know and can't do this is because they haven't got the resource and infrastructure and they haven't had the in-depth legal professional advice in order to be able to do this quite awfully.

We don't operate in grey areas or loopholes.

The law is written to facilitate this.

Yeah, yeah.

And I think that's the end of the questions, James.

I think we've tried to have answered as many as we could there.

As for going forward, obviously, there's a QR code for everyone who's still in the webinar to book a call if it's the you.

And anything else from you, James?

We've just got one final question, which I just saw pop up as I walked on the Q&A.

I've never resisted.

It says, so if I want to withdraw money from the trust, is that possible?

In short, if you're a beneficiary, yes, you can request the money from the trustee.

So, yes, you can withdraw it.

And assets can be placed in and out of a trust in the same way they can for an individual as a company.

They can be bought and sold by the trust.

So, yeah.

Yeah.

Fantastic.

Fantastic.

Well, I think that's most of it.

So, you know, the information is there.

You've got the QR code.

If people want to get more information or if they feel that it's for them and their circumstances would be such a little benefit, my advice to everybody would be get in touch with Reid, scan the QR code and set up an appointment and let's see if we can make this a beneficial thing for you.

Yeah, fantastic.

Thank you very much.

Thank you very much.