Nevis Asset Protection Trust

The offshore asset protection trust is the state of the art tool in the contest between those who have assets and those who seek to take those assets away. Nevis provides high net worth individuals and successful corporations with effective, modern protection for their assets as a result of it having enacted the Nevis International Exempt Trust Ordinance ("the Act") in 1994. This item of legislation is originally derived from the English courts of equity as modified by the statute. The Act creates an environment which discourages creditors from litigating - the asset protection features. The cornerstone provisions upon which Nevis asset protection trusts are built and which provide the legal environment for asset protection are:

1. Specific Statute of Elizabeth Override Provisions;
2. Inclusion of strict confidentiality provisions under the Confidential Relationships Act and provision that all non-criminal judicial proceedings relating to an international trust are required to be heard in private with no details being published without leave of the Court;
3. Provision requiring that any claim brought against an international trust must be brought in the High Court of Saint Christopher and Nevis within two years of the date of the transfer to the international trust
4. Inclusion of detailed provisions as to what constitutes a fraudulent conveyance and as to which transfers made in specified circumstances are not deemed fraudulent. The provisions also require the creditor to prove beyond reasonable doubt (the criminal standard of proof) that the international trust was settled or property was transferred with the intent to defraud that creditor;
5. A requirement that a creditor bringing any proceeding against an international trust must place a bond in the sum of US$25,000 with the Nevis authorities;
6. The non - recognition by the High Court of Saint Christopher and Nevis of judgements which are inconsistent with the provisions of the Act;
7. A provision that if a creditor is successful in establishing a fraudulent intent the entire transfer to the trust is not is undone, but only so much of the transfer as is necessary to satisfy that particular creditor.