Sable Trust Limited specializes in providing trust establishment and ongoing trust administration services. We have extensive experience in different types of trust structures. As appointed trustee we dedicate ourselves to protecting your assets and fulfilling your intentions. This commitment goes far beyond merely overseeing distributions to beneficiaries.

The trust concept is long established with its origins in the courts of England of the Middle Ages. Today, the trust forms the basis of most international tax and estate planning. It usually takes the form of an owner of assets, called a Settlor, transferring the assets to a trustee who then holds and administers the assets for the benefit of beneficiaries named by the settlor. There are different types of trust that can be employed depending on the individual circumstances and wishes of the settler.

Some of the benefits of using a trust structure are:

• Confidentiality
• Protection of assets
• Avoidance of estate taxes
• Protection of family wealth within a legally secure and private trust structure
• Avoidance of probate procedures
• Mitigation of forced heirship provisions

The British Virgin Islands offers the ideal environment for trust business: modern legislation offering the most favourable technical features available, along with competence and expertise in specialized areas within trust law and administration, and the commitment of the BVI International Finance Centre and the BVI Government to maintaining the quality of environment required by a modern trust jurisdiction.

In 1993, the British Virgin Islands enacted the Trustee Amendment Act which updated the principal trust legislation to incorporate a number of important developments in international trust practice. BVI trusts are exempt from local registration requirements and all local taxes where the beneficiaries are not resident in the BVI.

In keeping with the vision of the BVI as a premier offshore finance centre, there has been considerable focus on the need to respond to change in the external corporate environment and the ability to provide new competitive products that will maintain or enhance the reputation of the territory.

In 2003 the Virgin Islands Special Trust Act (VISTA) was passed. This Act provides for a new type of trust, the VISTA Trust, which seeks to overcome some of the obstacles of traditional trusts in the areas of management of underlying companies and succession planning. In particular, it is designed to meet the growing international need for a satisfactory legal mechanism to facilitate the succession planning of family corporate businesses. The essence of the VISTA Trust is that property in a trust may be retained rather than be subject to a trust for sale and trustees can now leave the management of the underlying company to the directors, thereby more closely mirroring the true wishes of the settlor.