ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Edward Buckland TEP is Managing
Director and Global Head of Fiduciary in the Wealth Advisory
division at Barclays, and is a Member of the STEP Board and
Council
Books that provide an overview of the laws of various
jurisdictions are not that uncommon. However, books that have at
their heart a desire to help the private client practitioner
understand a little more of the ever-changing international
landscape are rarer, and the Private Wealth and Private Client
Review definitely fits into the latter category.
This work, which is edited by John Riches, contains, in addition
to 26 overviews of relevant laws in various jurisdictions, two more
general chapters. The first deals with EU developments and is
written by Richard Frimston (perhaps the leading light on these
issues), and the second covers the cross-border considerations for
matrimonial property, a subject close to any private client
practitioner’s heart.
The meat of the book, however, consists of those jurisdictional
chapters, each of which follows roughly the same format. After an
introduction, there is a useful section on the local tax system as
it applies to residents of that jurisdiction, followed by the
principles of succession, issues of wealth structuring and
regulation, and some conclusions as to the future.
Thus if the reader were dealing with a resident of Belgium, the
Belgian chapter would at least give you some helpful pointers on
the framework of the rules in that person’s home jurisdiction,
although, as the book is quick to point out, these can only be
pointers and not a substitute for individual advice.
It is particularly good to see that the jurisdictional chapters
do not cover solely the usual suspects. Thus there are chapters on
India and Brazil, to name but two that are becoming increasingly
important.
It is also perhaps surprising that, while the Cayman Islands,
Bermuda and the British Virgin Islands all have chapters devoted to
them, Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man do not. However, in my
view, this book is at its most valuable where it is helping the
private client practitioner gain an understanding of the laws of,
say, Argentina or Germany, and not of an offshore island.
So perhaps in the next version we may see more of the emerging
market economies and less of the offshore islands. In addition to
Russia and China, what about Indonesia or Malaysia, for
example?
As is inevitable in books of this type, not all of the
jurisdictional chapters cover exactly the same ground, in certain
chapters perhaps dwelling too much on local regulation and not so
much on other elements.
One example that could have been followed in other chapters is
shown by the New Zealand chapter, which has details of the various
double-taxation treaties. This is valuable: planning using double
taxation treaties is an increasingly important area for
international private client practitioners.
Each of the jurisdictional sections could benefit from a
discussion of the double-taxation treaty framework and its details
(along the line of the excellent New Zealand contribution from
Geoffrey Cone). If, for some jurisdictions, the table would be too
long, concentrating on the double-taxation treaties most likely to
be of interest to the international practitioner could be a
solution.
That being said, this book is an extremely welcome addition to
the shelf of any international practitioner. It provides, in one
handy volume, a useful introduction to the laws of many
jurisdictions that are of increasing importance.
In addition, parts of the text, in particular the thoughts of
the editor in his preface, are essential reading for anyone
involved in international planning.
TITLE: The Private
Wealth and Private Client Review
EDITOR: John
Riches
ISBN: 978-1-9076064-2-7
PRICE: GBP225
STEP member price: GBP157.50 (go to
step.org/books
and log in to receive your discount)
Publisher: Law Business
Research