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STEP Journal: Issue 2, 2023

31 March 2023

Issue 2 focuses on modern families and vulnerable clients. We look beyond the traditional ‘cookie-cutter family’ and explore the rights of cohabitees in England and Wales, and estate planning for younger generations in Canada. The Caribbean and Latin America forms our regional focus, and we speak to STEP's new worldwide Chair.

A wellspring of ideas

With winter throwing its last punches in the northern hemisphere, it is perhaps fitting that this issue of the STEP Journal has as one of its focuses the sunnier climes of the Caribbean and Latin America.

STEP news

Board elections | Membership renewals | Diary dates

Too much or not enough?

Blátháin Winthrop, Head of Editorial at STEP, summarises the key findings of the STEP Content Survey 2022

The evolution of the EPP

Jenni Hutchinson shares the story of STEP’s EPP as it hits a special milestone

Introducing… the STEP PCAs 2023/24 charity partner

Alzheimer’s Disease International is the new charity partner for the STEP Private Client Awards

Strengthening a global connection

Welcoming the new worldwide Chair of STEP, Tony Pitcher TEP

Unhappy anniversary

A year after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Helen Swire looks into the impact and unexpected consequences

Book review : A Practitioner’s Guide to Correcting Mistakes in Pension Schemes

Back to basics: digital assets-Part 2: crypto custody

The benefits of legal apprenticeships

How UK firms can diversify hiring strategies

The Swiss Army knife wealth manager

Reflections on modern structuring solutions

Latin primer

Nicolas Malumian provides a summary of wealth and gratuitous transfer (donations and inheritance) taxes in Latin America

Exclusion delusion

Ashley Fife considers the limits of scope of trustees’ powers to add or exclude beneficiaries, following the landmark judgment in Grand View PTC v Wong

Under no obligation

Dwayne Whylly explains why underlying companies of trustee-documented trusts in the Bahamas typically do not have reporting obligations under FATCA and the CRS

Casting the net wider

Beth Le Cheminant describes the unique features of trusts and foundations structured in Nevis

Make no mistake

Robert Lindley and Tonicia Williams examine the Hastings-Bass rule on fiduciaries’ mistakes under Cayman Islands law

The planning pros of pensions

Ruta Savignac and Niver Bossle Acosta explore the advantages of private pension plans and their use for financial and succession planning of Brazilian private clients

Treaty for two

Monica Bity describes the likely impact of a new double‑taxation agreement between Brazil and the UK

Around the world

Helen Swire rounds up taxation and regulation news in the Caribbean and Latin America

Confidentiality and the family courts

Nicholas Fairbank and Olivia Gaunt on disclosing papers from financial remedy proceedings in England and Wales

Trusts make their debut

André Santos Raquel provides an overview of trust legislation recently enacted in Macau

Burden of proof

Adea Meidani addresses the issue of trust and presumption of ownership in France

The rights of cohabitees

Michael Gregory calls for greater legal transparency on issues concerning unmarried cohabiting couples in England and Wales

Beyond the cookie-cutter family

Will Burnell asks whether the law is keeping pace with the modern family unit, with reference to recent England and Wales and Jersey case law

Insight panel

How does your jurisdiction define a child and what challenges (if any) do these definitions pose for today’s modern family?

The state of Singapore’s PDD scheme

Tan Shen Kiat examines the development of the Professional Deputy and Donee scheme since its inception in 2018

Next-gen advisory

Demetre Vasilounis raises estate‑planning considerations that apply to younger generations, from a Canadian perspective

The law in an LM-mess?

Following recent conflicting decisions of the England and Wales Court of Protection, Paul Levy and James McKean discuss varying a will under the Mental Capacity Act 2005

No remedy for abuse?

Polina Kozlova unpacks a recent New Zealand case concerning a breach of fiduciary duty to an adult child

A trigger for concern

Michael Perkins gives an Australian perspective on the distinction between vulnerability and decision-making abilities

Modernising LPAs

Louise Lewis provides an update on the progress of a UK Bill aimed at modernising lasting power of attorney applications

Count your blessings

Stephen Alexander and Kiara Brennan set out the circumstances under which Beddoe relief may be refused in Jersey

Letter to the Editor

John L Poole TEP pens a response to a recently published STEP Journal article on the use of multiple wills for cross‑border estates, with an Australian perspective

Member Q&A - Jennifer Wioncek TEP

We chat to Jennifer Wioncek TEP, Partner at Bilzin Sumberg in Florida, US, following her taking home STEP’s Geoffrey Shindler Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Profession at the 17th annual Private Client Awards in December 2022.