Involving the family

PTCs enable families to become more involved with the management of trust structures and their underlying assets.

Rather than appointing an institutional trustee, a PTC will be formed to act as trustee to family trusts. The Board of Directors will usually comprise a mix of family members and Bellerive Trust as directors. This provides the PTC with the benefit of specialist knowledge from the family members, in addition to the experience and skills offered by Bellerive Trust.

Management of the PTC

For residency purposes, it is important to ensure that the management and control of the PTC remains in Guernsey or Alderney, which would usually be the location of Directors’ meetings and administration of the PTC. This should also be the case when the PTC is acting as a trustee.

This also assists with maintaining confidentiality of the structure and its decision-making processes, particularly if there are sensitive family issues to take into account.

Benefits of a PTC

• Families can exert a greater element of control over structures.
• The family members can bring their expertise to the PTC in managing family businesses, or to other specific investments and strategies.
• Greater influence in deciding on distributions from trusts for the benefit of family members, as well as longer-term succession planning.

Local expertise is provided by Bellerive Trust, with supporting administration and accounting infrastructure, both to the PTC and its underlying trusts.