Highly regulated jurisdictions such as Jersey will be the ones that attract family offices as the global landscape continues to shift in favour of transparency, trustees need to ensure they find ways to continue to provide a personal service to beneficiaries in light of an increase in the use of technology, and family offices need to get to grips with cyber security.
Those were just some of the views expressed at Jersey Finance's London Private Wealth Conference, which saw Ogier Partner Sally Edwards join an expert panel discussing the globalisation of wealth, the impact of technology on the trustee/beneficiary relationship and cybercrime, among other topics.
Sally said: "There was an interesting discussion around globalisation and digitalisation, how, with less face-to-face time between trustees and beneficiaries, the relationship could be fundamentally altered.
"The next generation are particularly mobile, moving across the world to go to university for example, and are much more likely to want to digitalise aspects of their relationship with their trustee.
"The digital age requires trustees to take a more imaginative approach to ensure that they are building a relationship with beneficiaries, as they may no longer rely on meeting with beneficiaries in person with the same frequency."
"The discussion around Jersey's regulatory regime was also of interest – Jersey isn't a light touch regime, it's well-regulated, and that's something that private clients are looking for."
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.