Unravelling
complexity.

The Virgin Islands Data Protection Act, 2021 (the Act) is now in force. The Act imposes a number of obligations upon investment funds in relation to the processing of personal data that they will inevitably collect as part of the investor onboarding procedure.

This article, originally published in INSOL World Quarter 3 2021, picks up on some of the themes discussed in one of the INSOL Virtual 2021 offshore panel discussions, titled “Common sense in common law recognition – how Offshore Courts and the Hong Kong Courts can be good neighbours”.

A trust is a legal relationship created when a person (the settlor) places assets under the control of another person (the trustee) for the benefit of beneficiaries or a specific purpose. The trustee is obliged to deal with those assets, not for his own benefit, but for the benefit of the beneficiaries or to further the specific purpose set out in the trust deed.

A reminder that all private funds registered with the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority (CIMA) must submit a fund annual return (FAR) form. CIMA has just released another form to capture certain information about each private fund’s related fund entities, called the RFE form, which must be completed by private funds.

With the development of legislation in a number of offshore jurisdictions to allow for non-charitable purpose trusts, the Cayman Islands introduced the Special Trusts (Alternative Regime) Law 1997 (the STAR law) – now contained in the Trusts Act – to allow for the establishment of STAR Trusts.

A grant of probate or letters of administration will be necessary when a person dies and leaves Cayman Islands assets in their individual name, such as money in a bank account or shares in a Cayman Islands company. The Succession Act (2006 Revision) (the Succession Act) provides that no person shall take possession of or in any manner administer any part of the estate of a deceased person unless he or she has first obtained from the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands a grant of probate of the will or letters of administration of the estate of such deceased person.

The Foundation Companies Act, 2017 (the Foundation Companies Act) introduced the foundation company as a new type of corporate vehicle in the Cayman Islands. The Foundation Companies Act is drafted to allow the foundation company to be rooted in Cayman Islands company law, but function like a civil law foundation and only applies to companies that have been declared by the Registrar of Companies (Registrar) to be a foundation company. This guide sets out the key features of foundation companies and how they are formed and operated.

In April this year, Mr Justice Baker of the English Commercial Court dismissed proceedings brought by the Danish national tax authority (SKAT) against over 100 defendants in connection with more than DKK2.5 billion in tax refunds that SKAT alleged it had been induced to repay by misrepresentations: Skatteforvaltningen (the Danish Customs and Tax Administration) v Solo Capital Partners LLP (in special administration) and others [2021] EWHC 974 (Comm).

Cayman Islands entities will be receiving their annual invoices for 2022 registration fees in the last quarter of 2021. If you are considering terminating your entity or terminating its registration with the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority (CIMA) you will need to act promptly in order to avoid or reduce the 2022 registration fees and filings.

Disputes amongst shareholders, and the litigation that follows, are commonplace in financial centres such as the Cayman Islands. To put this into context, and while estimates range, there are believed to be in excess of 100,000 companies worldwide incorporated in the Cayman Islands. This is not surprising, given that it is a sophisticated jurisdiction with a well-developed legal system, which has produced a rich line of jurisprudence regarding shareholder disputes. In particular, many of these disputes involve complaints brought by minority shareholders to the effect that their rights are being infringed or their shares are being expropriated.