The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

There could be “a lot of international take-up” of the Bahamas’ Executive Entity product if a Guernsey-based provider’s interest in using it comes to fruition, Tribune Business was told yesterday.

Andrew Law, chief executive of International Protector Group (IPG), a Nassau-headquartered provider that supervises $1.5 billion in client assets, told Tribune Business that the innovative product could become the Bahamas’ “most talked about” offering if more firms joined the effort to promote it.

Mr Law and IPG are currently pushing the benefits of the Executive Entity’s “versatility” in Family Office structures, which are the units established by high net worth individuals and their families to manage all aspects of their financial and domestic affairs.

The Bahamas has been pushing into this market, and Mr Law told Tribune Business: “We see the Executive Entity, in some way or form, as an absolutely integral part of the Family Office......

“It may not be the Family Office itself, as I don’t know if it can be used for trading purposes, but it’s an absolutely vital vehicle to the shares in whatever’s the Family Office.”

Rather than providing trust or fiduciary services, Mr Law said international financial centres were now increasingly providing Family Office services.

“We’re providing a platform for families that want to have an international and offshore presence, and were setting up a structure to help them do that. Every structure we do has a Family Office,” he told Tribune Business.

Confirming that IPG had set up four Executive Entities to-date, with six in total on the Companies Registry and “four or five proposals out”, Mr Law added: “We’ve had interest from people who themselves would be a competitor, in the Channel Islands, asking for details of the Executive Entity, which they want to use in their structure.

“If I can interest them, the Bahamas Executive Entity will have a lot of international take-up.”

Mr Law expressed surprise at the Guernsey request, adding that the Channel Island nation was about to pass foundation legislation that was “90 per cent of what the Bahamas Executive Entity is”.

Demand for the Executive Entity was “ahead of schedule”, Mr Law said, adding that its main attraction was its “versatility” because it could fulfill so many roles and there was nothing in legislation to stop it.

Noting that it could act as a protector, shareholder, an interact with third parties to reduce legal liability, Mr Law said Higgs & Johnson was also preparing to give the Executive Entity “a big push”, but the Bahamas needed “more people out there promoting it”.