Andrea De Vecchi on Italia Oggi Sette comments the use of Trust in Italy

Italia Oggi Sette publishes an in-depth article on the Trust instrument in the Italian landscape.

The article highlights how even today, after more than 30 years since the legal recognition of the Trust as an asset protection tool, Italy  is still uncertain about its use since, because of cultural heritage the concept of ownership and the consequent entrusting of an asset to a third party, is still not viewed with good eye.

Andrea De Vecchi, managing partner of Andersen, with his comment underlines how actually these fears are many times completely unfounded since exist some safeguards, the so-called Reserved Powers, already widely used, which, for example, allow the settlor of a Trust to have a list of powers – including those concerning administrative nature – that he can reserve to himself or that will be binding on the trustee (Trusts Law Cayman Islands 1995).

Reserved Powers are a valuable tool for the settlor who wishes to maintain some sort of control over the assets subject to the Trust, however, as specified by De Vecchi, this practice is not always well regarded by IRS.