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Liechtenstein's LGT Group Sells Trust Business,
by Phillip Morton, Investors Offshore.com
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
LGT Bank, the Liechtenstein institution at the eye of an international tax
evasion storm which swept across Europe and the wider world last year, has decided
to get out of the trust and fiduciary services market.
On March 10, LGT Group, which is owned by Liechtenstein's royal family, announced
that it was selling LGT Treuhand AG, its trust and foundations business, to
First Advisory Group, a provider of fiduciary services in Liechtenstein. The
sale will have retroactive effect from January 1, 2009. LGT Swiss Trust Company
(STC) will be taken over by LSP Trust Ltd, which was founded by former STC employees,
also with retroactive effect from the start of the year.
Only last November, LGT Group announced that it would cease to offer trust
and fiduciary services that were not compliant with the tax legislation in its
clients’ countries of origin. But the bank acknowledged that the sale
of the business was a further possible option, and given the tide of political
and public opinion turning against banking secrecy in particular and offshore
jurisdictions in general, it has evidently come to the conclusion that selling
trust services could be more trouble than it is worth.
"Going forward LGT Group will no longer provide fiduciary and asset structuring
services, nor will it continue to offer trusts or foundations," the bank
confirmed in its announcement. The firm added that the sale would allow it to
focus on its core business of local banking and asset management services in
its European markets.
Angelika Moosleithner, co-owner of First Advisory Group and member of the Executive
Board stated: "FA has recognized the signs of the times. We will continue
to offer globally oriented wealth and estate planning services in line with
all relevant legal and regulatory requirements, and lead our company into an
international future. This is in every sense also in the best interests of Liechtenstein
as a whole."
Iwan J. Ackerman, First Advisory's co-owner and CEO added: "The age of
outright tax avoidance is over. In a modern trust and fiduciary company, we
must not only take international, political and tax developments into consideration,
but we also have to constantly adjust our service offering to these developments
and to proactively optimize sustainable solutions for our clients. The stronger,
larger and more international we are, the better equipped we are to do this."
The Alpine jurisdiction has come under intense pressure from Germany and other
European governments - and latterly the new administration in the United States
- to dilute its banking secrecy laws after it emerged last year that many wealthy
citizens of these countries had kept undeclared assets in Liechtenstein accounts
and trusts out of legal reach of foreign tax and other government authorities.
Earlier this month, US Senator Carl Levin introduced a beefed-up version of
his 'Stop Tax Haven Abuse Act' which will, among other aims, authorize the US Treasury
Department to develop a list of 'offshore secrecy' jurisdictions and impose
tougher reporting requirements on US taxpayers with dealings in these listed
jurisdictions. The bill would also give the US Treasury authority to take "special
measures" against foreign jurisdictions and financial institutions that
impede US tax enforcement. It is understood that the legislation has the support
of President Barack Obama, who backed similar proposals whilst sitting in the
Senate prior to his election as President.
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