Nautilus calls on Jersey trustees to encourage clients to support local charities

Tuesday 14 July 2015

Independent trust company Nautilus is calling on fellow Jersey trust businesses to encourage their clients to support local charities as part of their wealth management strategy.

In the past two years, Nautilus has encouraged its international client base to support Jersey charities to the tune of almost £500,000.

There could be a major impact on Jersey’s charitable sector if locally based trustees encouraged their clients to support a local charity as part of their philanthropic efforts.

Jan Kenny, shareholder and consultant with Nautilus, said, "Jersey has a sophisticated wealth management industry with many thousands of Jersey-based trusts. This has the potential to make a significant impact on the fortunes of our local charities. I regularly talk to my clients about including a Jersey charity as a beneficiary of their trust, and they tend to be very receptive. As part of the administration of their trusts, clients understand that the only financial footprint they leave in Jersey is the fees they pay to a trust company. Many like the idea of including Jersey as part of their philanthropy, and seeing the difference they make as a result."

Mrs Kenny has been liaising with Jersey-based lawyers and trustees over the past few years to raise awareness of the issue. Typically, many Jersey trusts have charitable secondary class beneficiaries, but often these tend to be well-known international charities.

"Trusts set up in Jersey have historically had onerous exclusion clauses which can mean that our local charities and, at times, UK or foreign charities, simply cannot benefit. However, there is an opportunity for local charities to become the principal default beneficiaries provided that the trust instrument is drafted or amended to allow the trustees to add them in. This is what I hope to encourage, so more Jersey charities can benefit," explained Mrs Kenny.  

Major strides have been made in recent years to establish Jersey as a centre for philanthropic excellence through the Jersey Charities Law and the launch of Jersey Foundations in 2009. Nautilus was the first trust company in Jersey to establish a wholly charitable Foundation back in 2010, shortly after the structures became available. The trust company, which also has offices in Mauritius and Hong Kong, continues to administer active Foundations in philanthropic structures on behalf of many global clients.

Nautilus is an independent trust company which provides wealth management, trust and corporate solutions to a range of private clients, corporations and family offices.