By Loconte&Partners
Loconte&Partners is proud to have been chosen to represent Italy for the Private Client 3rd Edition Country Comparative Guide of Legal500. Our Firm contributed to the Hot Topic chapter, explaining the development of the use of trust in Italy. The choice made by Legal500 confirms the placement of our law firm as a leader in the assistance to the HNWI.
“The institute of trust is increasingly getting used in Italy in the recent years, despite some difficulties mostly related to the fact that, as commonly known, Italy does not have a proper regulation for trusts. Indeed, the institute of trust has been recognized in Italy through the ratification of the Hague Convention of July 1st 1985 (enforced with the Law n. 364/89 and came into force since January 1, 1992). The Convention pursued the aim of harmonizing the Private International law rules, related to trusts, in order to allow civil law countries to borrow the trust instrument from foreign jurisdictions whose legislation regulates the trust instrument properly. It is therefore possible to set up trusts in Italy, thought the lack of domestic civil law rules entails the need for the tool to be regulated by the law in force in one of the Countries in which it is specifically regulated by law. This circumstance, however, does not mean that the trust qualifies as a foreign subject, neither from a civil law point of view nor for tax purposes. A wide range of different uses of the trust instrument have been developed in Italy in spite of the harmonization with the Italian civil code jurisdiction. Family trusts are the first kind of trust used, above all trusts for disabled people and trusts set up for inheritance planning and for asset protection for family needs.”
Read the Full Article on Legal500 & In-House Lawyer Hot Topic | Private Client (3rd edition) released in January 2020