Guernsey-based fiduciary company Imperium Trust has been granted a fiduciary licence by the Malta Financial Services Authority to open an office on the island.
Imperium’s offices will be located in Malta’s capital Valetta and a team of five has been appointed, led by new Managing Director Robert Owen.
Robert has worked in several jurisdictions – most recently as Trust Officer with Royal Bank of Canada Trust (Cayman Islands) and with Rothschild and Nerine in Guernsey. He will be relocating to Malta to take up the new post.
The operation will focus on wealth planning for high-net-worth individuals and include property development structuring, VAT services, pension provision, yacht registration, corporate services and intellectual property and image rights structuring.
David Gilmour, Director of Imperium Trust, said: “A number of aspects of wealth management have become increasingly difficult to offer from Guernsey. There has been a degree of uncertainty over the future of property development and intellectual property structuring, for example.
“This year’s UK budget finally clarified the position and measures are being introduced by HMRC that will remove the benefits for this type of planning to be undertaken locally for UK clients. We wanted to ensure we were in a position to continue to provide these services to our clients, as well as being able to offer the other benefits available through EU-domiciled entities.”