Foreword - June 2019

Reflecting on my own career path, I find I did not become a solicitor out of passion, but rather because the training, both practical and theoretical, provided me with a broad knowledge base and a serious professional qualification, so granting me the freedom to choose how to spend the rest of my career.

Having started out as an articled clerk in a south-west London general legal practice in the 1970s, I could not have imagined that I would go on to spend most of my career living and working in Switzerland, ‘advising families across generations’ on a daily basis. STEP helped me enormously during this time.

Geoffrey Shindler OBE TEP, one of STEP’s founders and a former Chair of STEP worldwide, was instrumental in developing the STEP education programme. Prior to this, STEP considered itself a body of professionals and not necessarily a professional body, which it has certainly become today.

In Switzerland in the early 1990s, particularly in the Swiss-German and Liechtenstein branch, of which I was a member at the time, STEP was considered an interesting club to belong to, largely because of the ability to network at luncheon meetings and thereby, hopefully, generate business and gain experience by interaction with other members.

At that time, membership was achieved by means of an assessment by the local committee of a potential candidate’s understanding of trusts and general experience and standing in the trust industry. As one may imagine, the whole process was rather subjective. Thanks to the efforts of Geoffrey and his colleagues at the time, STEP has made enormous strides in the education of its members. This continues today, with a dedicated professional development team based in STEP’s London secretariat, and a comprehensive continuing professional development (CPD) programme supported by STEP’s education partner CLT International.

The standard of contributions to this edition of the STEP Journal, and others, is a testament to STEP’s focus on education.

With STEP having originated in the UK, there are, of course, regular contributions from seasoned trust professionals practising in England and Wales, where trusts have been part of the landscape for centuries. However, increasingly, civil-law jurisdictions, including many in mainland Europe, are introducing trust laws into their own legislation.

This issue’s regional focus is Europe, and includes an article by Alex Baker TEP and Alicia Dimitrova regarding Liechtenstein’s approach to asset protection, showing that wealth planning, in one form or another, has been on the principality’s agenda for many centuries. Malta, which is familiar with both common- and civil-law concepts, is another example, with Ivan Grech explaining the development of that country’s first dedicated trust law, a decade and a half after its enactment.

Then there are the jurisdictions considering introducing trusts into their own legislation. With Switzerland in mind, Xavier Isaac TEP explains the steps being taken to introduce trusts into the Swiss legal system, an almost revolutionary move, 12 years since the country ratified the Hague Convention of 1 July 1985 on the Law Applicable to Trusts and on their Recognition.

At the other end of the scale are the European jurisdictions that are far from considering the introduction of a trust law, but have had to legislate for trusts. The article on the treatment of trusts in Portugal illustrates this point by showing how the Portuguese tax code has had to be updated to cover the treatment of distributions from foreign trusts.

There is plenty for our members to get their teeth into in this edition of the STEP Journal, and I trust you will enjoy the variety and subject matter of the contributions as much as I did.