Insights

On April 11-12th, STEP Malta hosted the 3rd International STEP Conference at the Hilton Hotel Portomaso which, like the previous 2 editions, was a huge success. The agenda presented key topics in the Trusts and Financial Services sector, such as succession regulation and trust planning, the trust registers of beneficial owners, GDPR, Brexit, Maltese PTC legislation (private trustee companies) as well as cutting edge topics such as the emerging Fintech opportunities, just to name a few. The conference also tackled a number of thorny issues in the trust world such as the challenges being presented by recent case law, the holding by trustees of shares in private companies as well as the duties imposed on trustees when engaging or monitoring investment advisors.

Dr Anthony Cremona TEP, partner heading the Trusts and Foundations practice at Ganado Advocates and the chairman of STEP Malta, delivered an in-depth presentation on Malta foundations. Dr Cremona provided an overview of the types of foundations, their uses and some proposed amendments for the future. Ganado Advocates was proud to be a sponsor once again of this prestigious STEP event. Dr Cremona commented: “STEP is without doubt the point of reference in the trusts and estate planning space. Its contribution to the industry is well known as is its support to practitioners in this field. Ganado shares with STEP the belief in the importance of academic preparation – an element that was evident throughout the conference – and it was therefore a huge honour for Ganado to be associated with such a prestigious event. We definitely look forward to many more such events in the future here in Malta.”