HLX Family Office

Our firm and our experienced professionals are available to assist your family in their strategic design of robust and reliable asset protection structures or family office arrangements in the Cayman Islands. 

If your family is considering how to organise and administer structures for generational planning purposes, it may be suitable to use a traditional trust, a private trust company structure or a foundation company structure.  In either scenario, HLX is available to assist.

HLX is a boutique firm that prides itself on the importance of the relationships that we establish between clients and ourselves.  We can promise you that our team of experienced professionals will act with the necessary level of discretion and responsiveness to ensure your structuring needs are met, properly and correctly administered and conform to the necessary regulatory and tax obligations.

Our professionals have multi-decades of experience administering, organising and managing family office structures in and from the Cayman Islands.  We have families from all continents of the globe and have provided governance oversight of a broad and diverse set of liquid and illiquid asset classes.

Understanding a Private Trust Company Structure

This interactive diagram shows some of the obligations and roles associated with a Private Trust Company structure as well as addressing some common questions that arise.  Please hover over sections to learn more:

Private Trust Company

Exclusively provides services to one family.  Organise as a Foundation and avoid ownership complications and improve efficiency with European banks vis-a-vis KYC.  Completely discrete, private and efficient.

Typically the majority of directors should be offshore (which HLX can provide) and one or other representatives may be included from the family or a trusted advisor to keep connection.

Governance Illustration:
2 x Cayman (for substance)
1 x Representative of family

Trustee of

Business Trust

(Cayman)

Various trusts can be established to ring-fence / segregate assets with different risk profiles, or for other legal or tax reasons.

Different types of trusts can be used such as regular trusts or purpose trusts, or indeed STAR trusts (a special type of purpose trust unique to Cayman)

Trustee of

Family Trust

(Cayman)

Various trusts can be established to ring-fence / segregate assets with different risk profiles, or for other legal or tax reasons.

Different types of trusts can be used such as regular trusts or purpose trusts, or indeed STAR trusts (a special type of purpose trust unique to Cayman)

Protector / Enforcer

The Protector/Enforcer has the capacity to exercise veto rights over distributions or similar activities thus ensuring suitable checks and balances on the trustees.  A member(s) of the family or a trusted advisor can serve in this role or Helix can nominate an individual to perform it.

Shareholder of

Holding Company

Typically, legal advisors will recommend the establishment of individual ‘holding companies’ for each asset that is planned to be owned.  This provides a degree of insulation although it is important to take legal advice on this and other matters.  The holding companies can be in any jurisdiction.  HLX can assist with establishing and administering Cayman-based holding companies.

Shareholder of

Holding Company

Typically, legal advisors will recommend the establishment of individual ‘holding companies’ for each asset that is planned to be owned.  This provides a degree of insulation although it is important to take legal advice on this and other matters.  The holding companies can be in any jurisdiction.  HLX can assist with establishing and administering Cayman-based holding companies.

Operating Companies

Investment Assets, Property, Artwork, Aircraft etc

Understanding a Foundation Company Structure

This interactive diagram shows some of the obligations and roles associated with a Foundation Company structure as well as addressing some common questions that arise.  Please hover over sections to learn more:

Cayman Foundation Company

Can be established as a regular company, a company limited by guarantee, for charitable purposes, or for other purposes too.

Typically the majority of directors should be offshore (which HLX can provide) and one or other representatives may be included from the family or a trusted advisor to keep connection.

Governance Illustration:

2 x Cayman (for substance), 1 x Representative of family

A Cayman Foundation must appoint a Company Secretary, licensed in Cayman to perform this role and said secretary must approve the addition of all assets into the Foundation from an AML perspective

(HLX can assist with this role)

A Cayman Foundation is a relatively new concept in Cayman but well recognised in civil law jurisdictions and allows a lot of flexibility within a corporate vehicle. This may be a suitable option for those less familiar with trust law concepts as it achieves the same result as a trust in that it can help take assets away from one party for generational or asset protection planning purposes.

Furthermore, banks and counterparties in Europe, are more familiar with foundations than trusts and can often onboard a foundation structure more efficiently 

Shareholder of

Holding Company

Typically, legal advisors will recommend the establishment of individual ‘holding companies’ for each asset that is planned to be owned.  This provides a degree of insulation although it is important to take legal advice on this and other matters.  The holding companies can be in any jurisdiction.  HLX can assist with establishing and administering Cayman-based holding companies.

Shareholder of

Holding Company

Typically, legal advisors will recommend the establishment of individual ‘holding companies’ for each asset that is planned to be owned.  This provides a degree of insulation although it is important to take legal advice on this and other matters.  The holding companies can be in any jurisdiction.  HLX can assist with establishing and administering Cayman-based holding companies.

Operating Companies

Investment Assets, Property, Artwork, Aircraft etc

Notes and Warnings

Designing, building and then administering a family asset protection structure is a complex process and one that should only be undertaken after lengthy conversations with the appropriate professional advisors in the legal, tax and regulatory fields.  Our focus, once those items are satisfactorily resolved, is to be a long-term trusted advisor to your family, exhibiting the key competences of discretion, professionalism and experience to ensure that structures designed for generations last for generations.

In all matters relating to fiduciary planning, including for instance asset protection structures, offshore investment holding companies, trusts, foundations and the like, it is vital that proper legal advice be sought and documented so as to ensure full compliance with the necessary legal, regulatory and tax obligations in force around the world.  HLX can assist with making introductions to suitable professionals and with making certain regulatory filings but we can not organise fiduciary structures without a planning memorandum prepared and signed off by legal and / or tax advisors, thus it is vital that this be conducted at the earliest opportunity