There is a growing awareness in China of the products and services that offshore centres – such as Guernsey – can provide to Chinese high net worth individuals (HNWIs), particularly in the provision of family office solutions. A family office is used to describe the employees of an ultra-HNW family that help an entrepreneur to run a business empire or their family’s property and liquid wealth, and attend to the needs of individual family members with a concierge or lifestyle service that can, say, find a student a place at Eton, or offer full visa services to live and work in a foreign country.
Guernsey’s popularity within the family office sector is driven by a combination of factors. Guernsey has its own elected parliament, a stable system of government and a mature and sophisticated legal system that provides certainty and predictability in terms of the ownership and operation of wealth structures.
The island’s close proximity to the City of London and mainland Europe, as well as its convenient time zone and tax-neutral environment, is also advantageous, as is the fact that Guernsey, with more than 50 years’ experience of servicing private and corporate clients, has unparalleled capability in dealing with family office structures.
Fiona Le Poidevin is chief executive of Guernsey Finance, the promotional agency for Guernsey’s finance industry. She can be contacted on +44 1481 720071 or by email at f.lepoidevin@guernseyfinance.com
