The idea of a trust is an ancient one. First conceptualised by the Greeks and Romans and developed further in the 12th century, the trust allows an asset to be enjoyed and controlled by different people. There is, of course, a legal ‘owner’, but a separate beneficiary receives the financial or other benefit, with a trustee administering the asset on the beneficiary’s behalf.
To this day, that old arrangement is one of the main ways UHNW families structure their wealth to last generations.
Modern families, though, are rarely as simple as a single owner and a single heir. A client may live in one country, hold investments in another, have beneficiaries elsewhere and use a trust governed by the law of a fourth. Many UHNWs therefore set up structures in jurisdictions with significant tax benefits, such as the British Virgin Islands, Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man.
[See also: The Spear’s Tax & Trust Indices 2026]
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These offshore financial centres offer specific services to non-residents, low or no tax and appealing regulation. Landlocked ‘onshore offshore’ centres such as Liechtenstein, Luxembourg and Switzerland are also popular.
Our research this year found that the crown dependencies remain primarily trust jurisdictions, while the UAE, Monaco, Italy, Greece and Cyprus are more often destinations for relocation. Singapore and Hong Kong are also increasingly emerging as offshore trust options.
To reflect this growing need, the Spear’s index of the top trusts, structuring and offshore advisers draws up a list of the very finest names, including lawyers who can handle the legal implications of founding and administering structures abroad.
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Explore the full 2026 Spear’s Tax & Trust Indices:
- Tax Lawyers
- Contentious Trust Lawyers
- Probate and Wills Lawyers
- Tax and Trust Barristers
- Accountants and Tax Advisers
Themes in 2026
A ‘more litigious’ world
Spear’s 2026 research found that most structuring work comes down to asset protection and succession planning.
‘The world is becoming more litigious,’ said Andrew Bayles of SwissIndependent Trustees, new to our index this year, citing disputes with business partners and within families alike.
The method to prevent such disputes is typically an irrevocable, discretionary foreign trust. Switzerland is a party to the Hague Convention, so a Swiss trustee can administer, say, a Jersey or Guernsey trust, which ‘provides a huge amount of protection because whoever’s a beneficiary can benefit; whoever’s not a beneficiary cannot’.
[See also: UK property assets held offshore increasingly at risk, lawyers warn]
Complexity is a recurring theme. Jordan Constable of Ogier said the fashion for structuring in several jurisdictions three decades ago is something advisers are still untangling: ‘We’ve been dealing with the consequences of that for years and years.’
Andrew Miller of Bedell Cristin, who has been in Cayman for 23 years, explained that regulation has added to the burden. CRS, FATCA, beneficial ownership and economic substance rules have pushed his practice towards regulatory and quasi-tax advice, and clients are wealthier, more international and more demanding than before. Many of his clients now live in Cayman, which was far from the case when he arrived.
Crypto wealth and foundations
Clients are also changing. ‘We’re seeing a lot of people who have generated a lot of wealth in a very short space of time looking to structure,’ said Constable, pointing to those who have made fortunes in crypto and Web3. Such clients tend to understand the structures better than most: ‘It’s sophisticated people who have a working knowledge of what we do before they even come to us.’
Another aspect of the industry that is evolving are the tools used by advisers. Nicholas Holland of Maples Group, who practised in London before moving to Cayman, said foundation companies have become ‘more important than trusts’ in his practice. ‘I thought, who would use these things? What’s the point of them?’ he added. ‘And I’ve come to Cayman and we do more of them than trusts. They’re hugely popular.’
For Nancy Chien of Bedell Cristin, foundations are gaining recognition because, without shareholders, they can be ‘a lot more flexible’. Many families, she added, like the control of a private trust company that also involves family members.
Valued for their deep knowledge and decades of experience with vast sums of wealth, our top advisers are all committed to discretion and the highest standards of client service.
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- Methodology
- The best trusts, structuring and offshore lawyers: some names to know
- The best trusts, structuring and offshore lawyers: the complete list
- Contact us
Methodology
Each year, the Spear’s Research Unit reassesses and refreshes its rankings of the leading providers in each sector by gathering data from and about the advisers and firms themselves, assessing submission forms, collating nominations, carrying out peer reviews, reviewing data from third-party sources, gathering references and recommendations, canvassing experts and conducting hundreds of interviews.
Advisers are evaluated using a proprietary scoring system that assigns different weightings to certain attributes. These scores feed directly into each new set of rankings in the Spear’s Indices. Each of these indices are published first online (according to the research calendar) and then in print. Print publication takes the form of the annual Spear’s 500 directory, which includes the top advisers in every index.
[See also: A guide to The Spear’s 500: Everything you need to know]
Each featured adviser is profiled on spears500.com. The site allows users to search the Spear’s database of more than 4,000 entities to find one (or more) to meet their specific requirements by filtering for specific attributes such as an adviser’s location, their specialist expertise and information about their client base.
The best trusts, structuring and offshore lawyers: some names to know
Rose Chamberlayne
- Focus: International succession planning
- Ranking: Recommended
- Firm: Wiggin Osborne Fullerlove
A Cheltenham-based partner at Wiggin Osborne Fullerlove, Rose Chamberlayne provides wealth preservation and succession advice – including around trusts, offshore structuring and family governance – to (U)HNW, multi-jurisdictional families.
Chamberlayne describes her approach as ‘holistic’, and says her practice goes beyond tax advice to incorporate lifestyle and reputational considerations for clients, particularly when it comes to relocation. She often works with Americans moving to the UK, and Brits relocating to Europe or Dubai.
On trusts, much of her work involves explaining and modernising older structures for next-gen HNWs. Chamberlayne tells Spear’s that ‘people just want their lives simplified’ and clients value planning that allows them to live comfortably and fulfilled.
Read Rose Chamberlayne’s full profile on Spears500.com
David Gilmour
- Focus: International clients and family offices
- Ranking: Recommended
- Firm: Imperium
David Gilmour, the Guernsey-based founder and CEO of Imperium, has seen his business evolve since its launch in 2011.
Imperium now serves clients in the UK, Channel Islands, Switzerland and Abu Dhabi, and Gilmour himself leads overall strategy for the group, while still working closely with its largest family office and high-net-worth clients on the establishment, administration and ongoing management of their onshore and offshore trusts.
‘We’re quite rare now in the fact that we are a decent-size independent provider,’ Gilmour explains. ‘Pretty much all of our competition of our size are private equity-owned or bank-owned. We are here to stay as an independent business’.
Read David Gilmour’s full profile on Spears500.com
Darren Kelland
- Focus: Family office solutions
- Ranking: Recommended
- Firm: Hawksford
‘I work closely with my clients and their other advisers to build trust and establish long-term relationships,’ says Darren Kelland, head of private client services at Hawksford. ‘This is essential in order to ensure I provide the right solutions for each client’s individual, and often complex, needs.’
Kelland’s work is largely centred around clients who are based in the UK, Ireland and the Middle East. With over two decades of experience under his belt, he is a trusted source of expertise in matters concerning succession planning, asset protection and family office solutions.
Read Darren Kelland’s full profile on Spears500.com
Naomi Rive
- Focus: Structuring in Jersey
- Ranking: Top Recommended
- Firm: Highvern
Naomi Rive spent over a decade in law before moving into the fiduciary world in 2014. As group director and head of private wealth at Highvern, she works daily with UHNW families and is keen to dispel the idea that trust companies are mere service providers. ‘What we’re trying to do is become professional partners to the families and family offices that we work with,’ she tells Spear’s.
Since UK tax changes made trusts less attractive, she says, more of her clients have been turning to family investment companies, partnerships and even private family funds instead. Rive nonetheless remains a champion of the trust, which she argues offers far more than tax efficiency, from confidentiality to a smooth handover between generations. ‘Being totally honest, I don’t think anything really replaces the benefits of a trust fully,’ she says.
Read Naomi Rive’s full profile on Spears500.com
Andrew Bayles
- Focus: Foreign discretionary trusts
- Ranking: Recommended
- Firm: SwissIndependent Trustees
Andrew Bayles comes highly recommended to Spear’s by several advisers: ‘He is not merely technically strong. He is steady, commercial and trusted to make difficult decisions properly,’ notes one contentious trust lawyer.
A director and general counsel at the Geneva-based, family-owned firm SwissIndependent Trustees, Bayles works with a range of international UHNWs – including from the Middle East, Europe, the Channel Islands and North America – advising on trust structuring, governance and succession planning. He also acts as an independent trustee and independent trust protector. He is particularly skilled at supporting clients when family dynamics are complicated, or their trusts involve complex, multi-jurisdictional assets.
Read Andrew Bayles’s full profile on Spears500.com
The best trusts, structuring and offshore lawyers: the complete list
Click on the individual names to be directed to more detailed profiles of each adviser on The Spear’s 500 website. The table is ordered by ranking and then alphabetically by surname.
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With additional reporting by Livia Giannotti.
