Estate Planning

Multi-Jurisdiction Will Drafting

We advise on the preparation of jurisdiction specific wills for each country where assets are held, ensuring compliance with local formality requirements and avoiding conflicts between potentially applicable laws.

Forced Heirship Navigation

We assist clients in legally structuring their estates to address forced heirship regimes through offshore trust structures, foundations, and holding companies that operate outside the succession laws of high-risk jurisdictions.

Executor and Trustee Appointment

We provide professional executor and trustee services, ensuring that the administration of the estate after death is handled by qualified fiduciaries with experience in multi-jurisdictional estate administration.

Probate and Estate Administration

Our team assists executors and families in obtaining grants of probate, managing estate assets, settling liabilities, and distributing the estate to beneficiaries in accordance with the testator's wishes.

Types of Trust Available

We advise on discretionary trusts, fixed interest trusts, purpose trusts, charitable trusts, STAR trusts (Cayman), and VISTA trusts (BVI) depending on the client's objectives and jurisdiction preferences.

Settlor Reserved Powers

Modern offshore trust legislation in many jurisdictions permits the settlor to retain certain powers including investment direction, the right to add and remove beneficiaries, and the power to revoke the trust, providing significant flexibility.

Firewall Provisions

Leading trust jurisdictions including the Cayman Islands, BVI, and Jersey have enacted statutory firewall provisions that protect trust assets from foreign forced heirship claims and foreign court orders that contradict the terms of the trust.

Professional Trusteeship

Neptune Fiduciaries Group acts as a licensed professional trustee, maintaining full fiduciary responsibility for trust assets, preparing annual accounts, managing distributions, and ensuring compliance with all regulatory requirements.

Foundation Council

A foundation is governed by a foundation council (similar to a board of directors) that manages its assets and affairs in accordance with the charter. Neptune Fiduciaries Group provides professional council members and manages day to day administration.

Asset Protection

Once assets are transferred to a foundation, they are generally protected from the personal creditors of the founder. The foundation's own legal personality creates a clear separation between the founder's personal affairs and the foundation's assets.

Beneficiary Arrangements

A private foundation can hold assets for the benefit of named individuals or classes of beneficiaries, for charitable purposes, or for a combination of both. Beneficiaries have rights defined by the charter rather than by law (unlike trust beneficiaries in many common law systems).

Popular Foundation Jurisdictions

Liechtenstein (Stiftung) is the oldest and most prestigious foundation jurisdiction. Panama, Seychelles, and Belize offer cost effective modern foundation legislation with strong confidentiality and asset protection provisions.

Family Governance Frameworks

We assist families in establishing family constitutions, governance protocols, and family councils to manage the decision making and distribution of family wealth across generations while minimising conflict.

Generational Wealth Transfer

We design structures that facilitate the gradual and controlled transfer of wealth to younger generations through trusts, foundations, family limited partnerships, and gifting strategies, each calibrated to the family's specific tax profile.

Incapacity Planning

We advise on powers of attorney, living wills, and lasting powers of attorney to ensure that in the event of mental or physical incapacity, the client's financial and personal affairs continue to be managed in accordance with their wishes.

Prenuptial and Postnuptial Agreements

We advise on the preparation of prenuptial and postnuptial agreements as part of a broader estate plan to protect family wealth from matrimonial claims and to clarify the division of assets in the event of divorce.

Management Buy-out Structures

We advise on structuring management buy-outs that allow existing management teams to acquire the business from the founding shareholders, using debt financing, equity rollover, and vendor financing arrangements.

Family Business Continuity

For family businesses, we design share structures, shareholder agreements, and trust arrangements that ensure the business passes to the next generation without triggering disruptive shareholder disputes or tax charges.

Buy-Sell Agreements

For multi-owner businesses, we draft buy-sell agreements funded by life insurance that provide a clear and funded mechanism for the surviving owners to purchase a deceased or retiring owner's shares at a pre-agreed valuation.

Tax Efficient Exit Structures

We advise on pre-exit corporate restructurings, entrepreneur relief, and offshore holding structures designed to minimise capital gains tax on the sale of a business, whether to a trade buyer, private equity, or family members.

Private Placement Life Insurance

PPLI is an offshore variable life insurance policy that holds a customised investment portfolio. Policy gains accumulate free of tax within the insurance wrapper and are paid as a tax free death benefit to the nominated beneficiaries.

Irrevocable Life Insurance Trusts

By placing a life insurance policy inside an irrevocable trust, the death benefit proceeds pass outside the taxable estate of the insured, providing significant inheritance tax savings for large estates subject to estate duty.

Wealth Preservation Wrappers

Offshore insurance bonds issued from Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, or the Isle of Man provide a flexible and compliant wrapper for holding diversified investment portfolios with deferred taxation on internal growth and switches.

Keyman Insurance

For businesses, keyman insurance policies taken on the lives of critical personnel provide the business with a lump sum on death or critical illness, enabling the business to continue operations without financial disruption.

Self-Settled Asset Protection Trusts

Jurisdictions including the Cook Islands, Nevis, Belize, and the Cayman Islands permit the settlor to also be a potential beneficiary of the trust while benefiting from strong statutory protection against foreign creditor claims.

Fraudulent Transfer Limitation Periods

Offshore jurisdictions impose short limitation periods (typically one to two years) within which a creditor must bring a fraudulent transfer claim to set aside a trust. Once this period expires, the assets are effectively protected.

Protected Cell Company Structures

PCCs allow assets to be segregated into separate protected cells, each ring-fenced from the liabilities of other cells and of the core company. This provides robust asset segregation within a single legal entity.

Timing of Asset Protection Planning

Asset protection structures must be put in place before a claim arises. Planning undertaken after litigation has been threatened or commenced may be challenged as a fraudulent transfer. Neptune Fiduciaries Group advises on proactive rather than reactive planning.

Offshore Trusts and IHT Exclusion

An excluded property trust settled by a non-UK domiciled individual can hold UK and non-UK assets outside of the UK inheritance tax net, provided the settlor has been non-UK domiciled for the required period at the time of settlement.

Domicile and Residence Planning

For UK IHT and US estate tax purposes, domicile and residence status are critical determinants of tax liability. We advise on the planning implications of changing domicile or residence, and on the use of treaties to eliminate double taxation of the same estate in two jurisdictions.

Lifetime Gifting Strategies

Lifetime gifts can be highly effective in reducing the taxable estate. We advise on potentially exempt transfers, the seven year rule, annual gifting exemptions, and the use of trusts to hold gifted assets for the benefit of family members.

Business Property Relief

UK business property relief (BPR) provides up to 100% relief from inheritance tax on qualifying business assets and unlisted shares in trading companies. We advise on structuring business interests to maximise BPR availability.

Secure Key Inheritance Planning

We advise on structures for the secure disclosure of private keys and seed phrases to executors and heirs, including multi-signature wallet arrangements, cold storage documentation protocols, and custodial transfer services.

Trust Structures for Digital Assets

Offshore trusts can hold digital assets through licensed custodians or through a corporate trustee holding a digital wallet. The trust deed should expressly provide for the management and distribution of digital assets on the death or incapacity of the settlor.

Tax Treatment of Crypto Inheritances

The tax treatment of inherited cryptocurrency varies by jurisdiction. In many countries, the acquisition cost of inherited crypto is stepped up to market value at the date of death, eliminating unrealised gains accumulated during the deceased's lifetime.

DeFi and NFT Planning

We advise on estate planning for holders of decentralised finance (DeFi) positions, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and other digital assets, including valuations for estate tax purposes and strategies for liquidating or transferring illiquid positions.