Moneyland: Why Thieves and Crooks Now Rule the World and How To Take It Back

by Oliver Bullough

Jersey’s speciality is the trust. Trusts are said to date back to the Middle Ages, when knights went away on a crusade and wanted to preserve control of their property for their wives and children. The knights gave their assets to a trusted retainer on the condition that any income they generated would continue to flow to their children. This principle has multiple applications in all legal systems based on Britain’s, including one of the great offshore tricks, since it separates the legal ownership of something from the benefits it provides. A condo may be in New York, and you may live in it, but you do not own it; it is owned by a trust company in Jersey which has a legal arrangement to pass it on to your grandchildren. The advantages of this from the perspective of a potential Moneylander are clear: if you no longer own something, you cannot be taxed on it, only on the revenue that it generates. Trusts are central to ‘succession planning’ – the euphemism for when rich people dodge inheritance tax – and Jersey lawyers are very good at setting them up.