At Charterhouse Lombard, we are committed to helping you achieve your goals through your offshore private foundation. We provide a full private foundation service to help you take advantage of the benefits these legal entities provide.

In the ever changing financial environment, the Private Foundation is now seen to offer not only greater flexibility to Founders and associated named Beneficiaries, but also to those vested with the responsibility of administering their assets.

A Private Foundation is a unique form of legal entity, which acts like a Trust and operates like a company, without members or shareholders. Charterhouse Lombard is a leading licensed provider of Private Foundations and has been since 1988.

Setting up a Private Foundation

Offshore Private Foundations share similarities with Trusts. There is a Founder, (like a Settlor) who can divest himself of assets for inheritance, asset protection and investment reasons, and a Foundation Council (Trustees or Board of Directors) who oversee the administration of the foundation. A foundation is generally used to protect the wishes of the founder whether that be an individual or corporate entity. Importantly the Foundation has no owner; this means the assets held by the Foundation can form a separate estate from the Founder's personal assets for all legal purposes. A Foundation is not normally used for trading or commercial activities in its own right, though it is common for a foundation to have an underlying company to carry out non-habitual trading or investment activities.

Foundation law exists in a number of jurisdictions including Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), Abu Dhabi Global Markets (ADGM), Isle of Man and Panama.

Benefits of Private Foundations:

  • A Foundation has no Beneficial Owner.
  • A Foundation can have perpetual or limited life.
  • A Foundation holds title to its assets.
  • A Foundation's Founder can be an individual or corporate entity.
  • The Foundation Council can be located anywhere.
  • Protector(s) can be appointed.
  • Third Parties can be incorporated into structure.
  • Beneficiaries can be individuals or corporate entities - could be another Foundation.
  • Beneficiaries are not required to be named at any point
  • Certainty is established upon registration.

Some example uses of a Private Foundation:

  • Asset & Family Protection.
  • Continuation of business
  • Inheritance planning.
  • Investment holding.
  • Collection of royalties etc.
  • Owner of real estate.
  • Pre-Nuptial agreements.
  • Pensions.

At Charterhouse Lombard, we are committed to helping you achieve your goals through your offshore private foundation. We can help with the setting up of a private foundation and ongoing management.

If you would like to find out more about our private foundation services, please contact us today.