United Kingdom: Trusts

Draft regulations propose significant changes to the UK's Register of Overseas Entities and Trust Registration Service, expanding public access to trust information while introducing new exemptions and extended deadlines for certain trusts.

The High Court has held that a term sheet between a buyer and selling managers contained legally binding and enforceable obligations. It also found that warranties given by management reflected parallel representations, and that the buyer was entitled to bring a claim in misrepresentation.

The Privy Council has delivered a landmark judgment clarifying the role of fiduciary protectors in trust structures, determining that protectors with consent powers have broad discretionary authority rather than a narrow oversight function. This decision has profound implications for trust administration, potentially requiring protectors to undertake the same rigorous decision-making process as trustees themselves, raising questions about cost, practicality, and the risk of deadlock in trust governance.

Italy has long been recognised as a business-oriented jurisdiction, supported by a legal and tax system historically designed to facilitate...

With effect from 1 September 2025, members of the public to Companies House to access trust information held on the UK Register of Overseas Entities (ROE) that is not publicly disclosed

With a plethora of other recent transparency developments – with a focus on the UK's Register of Overseas Entities and the Trust Registration Service (TRS) – private client practitioners might...

Significant changes were introduced to the UK's tax rules for non-domiciled individuals from 6 April 2025. The remittance basis for non-UK domiciled individuals has been replaced with a residency-based system.

The Honourable William Francis Seymour, Earl of Yarmouth v Ragley Trust Company Limited & Ors [2025] EWHC 1099 (Ch).

Blended families are now more common than ever, with many people starting new relationships, getting married, and entering into civil partnerships later in life...