Private Clients Offshore Structuring
Our team of experienced, qualified people and our director led personalised service is focused on meeting expectations and understanding the needs of our clients.
Contact UsWe offer bespoke solutions for Private Clients
We understand the personal involvement and hard work behind each of our clients’ wealth and the desire they have for future generations to understand the origins of the legacy left for them and their continued benefit.
Oak support clients around the world to structure their assets in a way that will help them grow their wealth now and preserve it for future generations. We guide our clients through the process of designing and implementing their bespoke structures, using trusts, foundations, companies and funds, in our offshore jurisdictions, to hold assets and investments for secure, efficient wealth and succession planning.
While some of our clients reside solely in one place, the majority of them are worldwide families with assets and relatives living in various countries. Oak has extensive experience administering trusts and private wealth structures with complex arrangements that include assets and beneficiaries spread across numerous jurisdictions as well as the legal, tax, and compliance concerns that occur when the laws of multiple countries may be in force.
How an offshore structure can secure your family's future
Diversify Risk
A broad spreading of assets across multiple jurisdictions has numerous advantages. Minimising exposure to economic and political uncertainties in a single country increases stability, provides access to a broader variety of investment opportunities, and enables wealth management strategies to become more flexible.
Asset Protection and Succession Planning
An offshore structure can help to protect assets for the future and also enables the orderly transfer of wealth to the next generation. By appointing an experienced professional Trustee to look after your global family assets you can take comfort that your international assets are being looked after in a stable well regulated jurisdiction.
Enhance Privacy and Confidentiality
By transferring assets offshore, you can maintain privacy and confidentiality for your family. High profile families can often be targeted, and a structure may provide an element of extra protection.
Tax Efficiency
Properly advised structuring of your family wealth through an offshore jurisdiction can considerably reduce tax liabilities, due to tax efficiencies available through those jurisdictions.
Access International Investment Opportunities
Investing in international markets enables individuals to expand their investment opportunities, these markets offer the potential for higher returns, exposure to emerging industries and the ability to capitalise on global economic development.
Increase Stability
A structure to hold these diverse assets may be the next step as any family will want to ensure that they have the right oversight and governance in place to keep track of their affairs. This additional layer of organisation and control contributes to increasing stability within the family's financial management and safeguards their wealth over time.
What are the costs?
We provide a specialised approach that helps clients accomplish their goals at a price that is economically viable for them.
Independent trust company fees are typically cheaper than major or other financial institutions, making trusts accessible to even very small estates. Independent fiduciary businesses such as Oak, provide a more specialised approach that will help clients accomplish their goals at a price which is economically viable for them.
Celebrating 25 years in South Africa
With our 25th anniversary fast approaching in February 2024, Oak Group's presence in South Africa has been instrumental in defining the landscape of wealth preservation and offshore structuring.
We understand the unique challenges encountered by South African investors, and our bespoke solutions are designed to address these needs. Using international structuring, tax optimisation, and asset protection, our unwavering commitment to our clients enables us to provide advice that is aligned with financial goals.
Providing a variety of services, including trust administration, family office services, and jurisdiction selection, based on our extensive experience and international legal knowledge, we are able to assist South African investors achieve long-term wealth.
Jurisdictions in which we operate
We've strategically positioned our offices in key jurisdictions to provide our clients with the best mix of jurisdictional solutions to their financial needs and goals.
Guernsey
Guernsey which serves as our headquarters, is a leading offshore financial centre operating with the highest levels of governance and regulation and is one of the world’s oldest and most reputable offshore financial services centres. The Island’s professionalism and regulation are unparalleled, backed by over 60 years of experience. Guernsey offers high-net-worth individuals a secure and stable environment in which to structure and preserve their wealth for future generations.
Our Guernsey team has a unique focus on the South African market, although they are primarily geared toward those who wish to invest in the United Kingdom and Europe. Our senior management team has over 100 years of combined experience in UK property matters, a
core asset class for the Group’s high net worth private clients
Isle of Man
The Isle of Man economy has been hailed as the forefront of modern regulation with an established fiduciary, banking, insurance, pension, online gambling and fintech industry. With a long-established legislation, based on common law principals with a strong tradition of upholding trusts, the legal system specifically affords clients the comfort that assets held in Trust will be protected for them and their families.
The Isle of Man shares the same VAT regime as the UK, meaning trading structures can operate within the UK and EU because they can be registered for VAT with the added benefit of no tax on the profits. Our team primarily provide trust and corporate solutions to wealthy individuals and families, many of whom have been clients for more than two decades. Businesses such as Derivco, Pokerstars and De Beers all having operations and/or family office connections with the island
Jersey
Jersey is a specialised centre that collaborates with some of the world’s largest private equity managers who have more than 60 years of experience structuring, managing, and administering funds. The core of the services provided by our family office are property and estate management for a number of large families. We have a robust network of relationships with all the leading banks, allowing us to locate the best financing and refinancing opportunities for our complex clients. With our in-house expertise when it comes to the industry-leading Jersey Private Fund (JPF) product – professional investor structures with up to 50 investors – we offer quick setup timeframes, vehicle incorporation, and regulation with a lighter touch than the full Collective Investment Funds (CIF) product.
Our team manages large Managed Trust Company structures for publicly traded UK companies and Private Trust Companies for ultrawealthy individuals and we have extensive experience with AIM and Main market PLC listings, managing corporate governance for such entities to meet UK and Jersey substance requirements, and providing named directors to these boards. We also have expertise with low carbon/net zero assets, with each Jersey director serving as a named director on the boards of companies with sustainability at their core.
Mauritius
Just a short hop from the African mainland, our Mauritius office operates as the Group’s African hub, having a particular focus on the Southern African market. With its mixed economic system, combines private freedom with centralised economic planning and governmental regulation. It has become an international financial services centre of substance and repute and is an excellent and convenient base for trust operations for African based clients. Employing almost 40 staff with highly qualified backgrounds in administration, law, company secretarial, investments, regulation and compliance, our Mauritian office also serves as the Group’s Centre of Excellence for accounting, risk and compliance.
There are various incentives open for foreigners to purchase property in Mauritius, and the island is becoming increasing popular as a physical base for African high net worth individuals. Whether it be a primary residence, or just a holiday home, there are a wealth of desirable properties for sale to foreigners, with a surprisingly low entry level offering people an enviable lifestyle in the heart of the Indian Ocean. Our team are well placed to assist potential new residents in their move to the island.
SCOTT MCPHERSON
"Offshore trusts provide comprehensive asset protection, confidentiality, and tax advantages. By leveraging the expertise of our highly qualified team, we can navigate the legal framework with the uttermost integrity whilst adhering to global regulations, ensuring our bespoke solutions are tailored to meet your needs."
Key Contacts
Our people are our most valuable asset
Contact us to learn more about our offshore structuring, designed to meet the needs of you and your family.
