Canada Life has launched a Professional Trustee Service, partnering with ZEDRA, a highly experienced, STEP award winning team of trust experts, to provide a simple way for advisers and their clients to set up and manage a trust, ensuring the rules and guidelines are adhered to.
The service will also help advisers and trustees navigate the Trustee Registration Service (TRS) introduced in September 2022, registration on which is a regulatory requirement for the majority of UK express trusts by the trustees.
The service provides a corporate professional trustee that will ensure all trustee duties, including regulatory requirements, are carried out on behalf of the settlor, trustees and beneficiaries. It can be used for new trusts and existing trusts where a professional trustee is required. The service also includes registration on the Irish CRBOT Trust Register, where appropriate.
Stacey Love, tax, trusts and estate planning manager, Canada Life commented:
“The Professional Trustee Service has been introduced to relieve the onerous requirements for advisers and their clients not only during the establishment of a trust and its ongoing administration, but also the ongoing requirement for trustees to update the Trust record on TRS within the appropriate timescales, when any relevant changes occur.
“Equally, the service can support the many people who do not want to burden their family or friends with the responsibility of acting as a trustee, or indeed where a Settlor may wish to keep their financial arrangements confidential. This is especially important where family members are globally mobile, to avoid the risk of a lay trustee who is resident in an EU country being required to also register the Trust in that country, given that many countries in the EU have implemented full public access beneficial ownership registers, eroding the confidentiality of the trust as a result.
“The Professional Trustee Service alleviates both the responsibility on individuals, but also allays concerns over maintaining confidentiality under the EU directive which applies to all EU countries, including, to a limited extent, the UK.”
ENDS
Enquiries:
Press enquiries should be directed to:
Elle McAtamney at Canada Life, elle.mcatamney@canadalife.co.uk
Notes to editors:
- For further details on the professional trustee service, please go to https://www.canadalife.co.uk/professional-trustee-service/
- More information on ZEDRA here: https://www.zedra.com/canada-life/
- For further details on the Trustee Registration service, please refer to https://www.gov.uk/guidance/register-a-trust-as-a-trustee
About Canada Life:
Canada Life is part of a group of companies controlled by Great-West Lifeco Inc., a diversified financial services holding company headquartered in Winnipeg, Canada. Through its subsidiary companies, Lifeco has operations in Canada, the United States, and Europe. Great-West Lifeco and its insurance subsidiaries have received strong ratings from major rating agencies. Great-West Lifeco has over 38 million customers worldwide and £1.532trillion assets under administration (as at 31 December 2022).
Canada Life Limited began operations in the United Kingdom in 1903 and looks after the retirement, investment and protection needs of individuals and companies alike. As well as providing stability and security through its individual contracts, Canada Life Limited has grown to become the leading provider of competitively priced group insurance solutions. Canada Life acquired Retirement Advantage on 3rd January 2018 for an undisclosed sum. The acquisition added over 30,000 retirement income and equity release customers and more than £2 billion of assets under management including a £1.5 billion block of in-force annuities to Canada Life.
Canada Life Limited is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority. Canada Life International Limited and CLI Institutional Limited are Isle of Man registered companies authorised and regulated by the Isle of Man Financial Services Authority. Canada Life International Assurance Limited and Canada Life International Assurance (Ireland) DAC are authorised and regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland.