GOLAW held a business meeting dedicated to the future of international business structuring and wealth planning

The event was devoted to deoffshorization for beneficiaries, automatic exchange of information, currency regulation and fаeatures of the bank's work with non-resident companies. The experts of the meeting were Maxim Lebedev, attorney, managing lawyer at GOLAW, Kieran Patel Director at Whitmill TRUST, Associate director at Whitmill TRUST Phillip Evans, and risk management director at ProCredit Bank Ruben Ohanian.

While companies structuring, the fourth EU directive on combating money-laundering should be taken into account (usually disclosure of information occurs according to its norms). Although only a few countries have created an open register of beneficiaries, including Ukraine, although it is not an EU country. On this path are Cyprus, the Netherlands, and Singapore. Until June 26, EU states are obliged to introduce the provisions of the Directive into legislation,” said Maxim Lebedev, managing lawyer at GOLAW. Also, the lawyer touched on the topic the information leakage and stressed that one should not only think about confidentiality, because it might suddenly “disappear”, but should be ready to answer all questions of law enforcement. “We live in a risky time. The risk exists not only for the beneficiary, but for all its counterparties,” said Philip Evans, associate director at Whitmill TRUST. Mr. Evans shared his vision of the future of offshore planning. He drew attention to the fact that by 2020 the legal field will change significantly. Already, there is a tendency to increase the use of trusts to protect assets and confidentiality. 62% of modern international companies open exactly in the status of trusts, and three years ago their share was lower. In return, the director for risk management of ProCreditBank, Ruben Ohanyan, spoke about the bank's position in matters of financial monitoring, currency control and other nuances of transactions with non residents. A key in the cooperation between bank and its client is understanding the structure of client's company. Banks are ready to make advances to its client, but only with the confidence that there is no illegal action behind its structure.