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Every business can use tax planning to legitimately minimize its international tax obligations. Our services are geared to provide our clients with structured businesses in the most tax efficient way by either using low tax or no tax jurisdictions. A more strategic approach is required for tax planning to produce fruitful results for a business.

Tax rulings can be obtained from the authorities in the various jurisdictions that will be used to structure the business that you would wish to use. The structures that are set up by forming entities in various tax efficient jurisdictions, are reviewed and implemented to offer our clients piece of mind in knowing that their tax position is sound.

We are able to provide our clients with tailor made structuring solutions that will benefit the business in the most tax efficient way, while managing and administering the vehicles used as part of the structure, in order to make sure it runs smoothly and efficiently to obtain the long term goals set out by the client.

We specialise in implementing continuation vehicles to protect our clients assets in order to be able to continue to manage their business affairs as per their wishes in the unlikely event of personal accident or death.

Various types of companies can be formed in jurisdictions all over the world, depending on the type of business one will be operating, from where the main business activities will be taking place, flow of funds, the DTA's (Double Tax Agreements) which each jurisdiction has with other jurisdictions for tax efficient structuring and most importantly, what will be commercially acceptable in practice so that it makes business sense.

International trusts can be used in asset protection planning, which means it generally integrates different planning tools into one structure, creating a "synergy" beyond what you could otherwise accomplish with independent planning techniques. Therefore, an International Trust has many different purposes, one of which is asset protection and another is to consolidate different assets that are dispersed geographically, in order to bring them together under one managed umbrella. A Letter of Wishes from the client can be used as guidance to the trustees on their preferences regarding the management of the trusts assets.

A Foundation is a different form of asset protection which also provides management of the assets via the foundation council. Foundations are commonly used as parts of a structure to manage assets as per the wishes of the founder. Therefore the founder establishes the foundation for a specific purpose. The purposes are contained within the Foundation Charter and articles. From time to time the Foundation Council as directed would distribute the assets, or a proportion thereof to the beneficiaries.

The process of establishing a Foundation is relatively straight forward and is not dissimilar to that of setting up a Company. There are three basic components that make up a Foundation:

Business Continuity Planning is a proactive planning process that ensures uninterrupted operations of the business should unexpected circumstances arise.

A Business Continuity Plan includes:

Depending on the type of business that will be operated, the experience of the client and the expected annual turnover of the existing or new business, bank accounts can be opened worldwide with reputable banking institutions.

It has become extremely difficult to open accounts with banks all over the world due to international regulations and requirements for transparency.

Depending on the type of business that will be operated, the jurisdictions that will be involved and the annual turnover, a bank will be chosen by the client that will accept to open an account for the relevant business. These days, most of the big banks require a minimum annual turnover of One Million Euros/Pounds/USD.

A full proposal or project plan of the proposed or existing business structure has to be provided to the bank, as well as all the relevant due diligence on the client, such as a CV (showing the clients or directors business experience, in relation to the business that will be operated by the entity that is applying for the bank account), a Bank Reference, Professional Reference, Proof of Address (Utility Bill showing physical residential address) and a Certified/Notarised Passport Copy of all the key parties, such as the UBO (Ultimate Beneficial Owner), Director and Shareholder, whether Actual or Nominees.

Most banks also prefer personal interviews with the client before they will consider opening an account for themselves or their business. If the client is unable to go to the bank directly, then a professional regulated introducer would need to do a full due diligence check for compliance and KYC (Know Your Client) purposes, after which he will introduce the client to the bank and the account will be opened without the client making an appearance at the bank.

Full background checks are always done on all clients, whether acting as Directors, Shareholders or Secretary of the company applying for the account, as well as on the Trustees of a Trust.

The UBO (Ultimate Beneficial Owner) of a business always has to be revealed or declared to the bank by the introducer and they will also be reviewed as per various systems such as the World Watch system that will reveal any form of risky or criminal activity.

Accounting and auditing services are provided according to the requirement of the relevant jurisdiction.

In order to show Management and Control in certain jurisdictions for tax purposes, a Local Professional Resident Director can be appointed. Trustee/Nominee shareholders can also be provided to offer privacy and confidentiality to the client. Secretaries and Registered Offices are also provided in the various jurisdictions as required by the relevant local law.

A specific project or investment holding structure can be formed to achieve the task at hand and continue to be administered, managed and monitored on behalf of the client as per their specific business requirements and guidance received.

It is very common to use a company as direct or indirect investment holding vehicle. Some may use a separate entity to hold the various types of investments in order to sell off a particular investment (such as a property) and the investment holding vehicle as a package, or a single entity can be used to hold various types of investments. Companies can therefore be used to hold investments such as:

Funds can be set up and managed in various tax efficient jurisdictions, which are commonly used for Investment Holding, such as International Property or Equity funds. Funds need to become regulated in the relevant jurisdictions if non private investor funds will be received. Private investment funds can be formed for specific investment holding purposes.

Companies can also be regulated and listed in a certain jurisdiction in order to be able to receive and manage the funds of international investors. An International Fund includes investments held anywhere in the world, but excluding the investor's home country, whereas a Global Fund includes investments held worldwide, including the investors own country.

Broker accounts can be opened for corporate entities or individuals who would like to:

There are on-line services whereby an individual or the representative of a corporate entity can either trade live via remote connection to the system of a licensed and regulated broker, or by giving instructions directly to the brokers via telephone or fax to purchase any shares of listed companies anywhere in the world.

A client can source his own property or we can assist to source a property, set up the correct entity that will hold the property for investment and tax efficient purposes, as well as manage the property via reputable property management companies.

For tax, management and cost saving purposes, it is recommended that a separate entity be formed for the purchase of each property, in order to be able to manage and sell off each property and its relevant holding entity separately as a package deal.

An alternative investment is an investment in asset classes other than stocks, bonds, and cash. The term is relatively loose and includes assets such as precious metals, art, wine, antiques, coins, or stamps and some financial assets such investments in property funds, commodities, private equity, securities, hedge funds, carbon credits, venture capital, film production and financial derivatives. Investments in property are also often referred to as alternative despite the previous use of such assets to enhance and preserve wealth.

Alternative investments could be used as a tool to reduce overall investment risk through diversification. It may be difficult to determine the current market value of these types of assets. They may be illiquid with minimal historical risk and return data. The prices to purchase or sell these assets could be high. They also have high minimum investments and fee structures compared to mutual funds.

The parties that manage these funds need to be regulated themselves before the fund/company itself can be set up and regulated in the relevant jurisdiction for its particular purpose.

The AIF Law in Cyprus allows for three different types of AIF's to be registered:

Companies can be set up as Property Holding Funds, whereby an individual or a specific group of investors will invest in a fund that will hold either one large property project or a number of commercial or residential properties, by investing directly in the property or by buying the shares of the entity that owns a particular property. Property funds generally are closed-end funds with a limited number of shares and some may be listed on stock exchanges. Investing in property funds can give both rental income and growth from rising property prices.

Clients are able to be selective of the properties they wish to include in the fund and how they are managed when forming their own private property investment funds for themselves and/or a group of partners.

Depending on the short and long term business or investment requirements of the client, the structure can be set up to facilitate the client’s specific requirements, whether it be for trading purposes, investment holding or to offer consulting services in a particular field of business, such as telecommunications, infrastructure and development, financial and project management.

We are able facilitate with the formation, administration and management of these structures on behalf of the client.

Trading services can also be provided and facilitated via other non related trading purpose vehicles.

For the clients that offer ship agency services to clients all over the world, a tax efficient structure could be set up and used to sign agreements with various service providers and onward provide these international services to all of their shipping clients all over the word via this international vehicle.

Family Office and its Specialist Management Team, form the alliance of our experience combined with the professional skills of our specialist partners, coordinated to engineer a complete strategy for our wealthiest and most influential clients. Our focus is on structuring, investment management & administration, financial investment and succession planning.

We believe that the primary purpose of any Family Office is to develop and implement strategies for the continuation of the long term wealth of a client.

We can facilitate the registration and protection of a client’s Intellectual Property (IP), which include Trademarks, Patents, Designs, Copyrights and Domain Names.

In the growing demand to ensure companies are exposed on the web, in cooperation with our business partner, we have put together a cost efficient and affordable complete Website Development, Hosting and Design solution, thereby also satisfying recent international regulatory requirements.