Private Foundations

In the ever changing financial environment, the Private Foundation is now seen to offer not only greater flexibility to Founders and associated Beneficiaries, but also to those vested with the responsibility of administering their assets.

A Private Foundation is a unique form of legal entity, which acts like a Trust and operates like a company, without members or shareholders.

There are a number of similarities to Trusts in as far as there is a Founder, (like a Settlor) who can divest himself of assets for inheritance, asset protection and investment reasons, and a Foundation Council (Trustees or Board of Directors) who oversee the administration of the foundation. A foundation is generally used to protect the wishes of the founder whether that be an individual or corporate entity. Importantly the Foundation has no owner, this means the assets held by the Foundation form a separate estate from the Founder's personal assets for all legal purposes.

A Foundation is not normally used for trading or commercial activities in its own right, though it is common for a foundation to have an underlying company to carry out non-habitual trading or investment activities.

For further information on the benefits of Private Foundations, please click here.

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