Episode 33 – The Offshore Industry: Asset Protection, Trust Protector and RPT

Guest: Reuben Tylor, Founder & Director of Trustees & Fiduciaries (Cook Islands) Ltd

In this episode, David Warren – Co-Founder & Chairman of Bridgeford Trust Company – sits down with guest, Reuben Tylor – Founder & Director of Trustees & Fiduciaries (Cook Islands) Ltd – who has been providing legal services to the offshore industry since 1987 and is a true thought leader in asset protection.

The conversation begins with a discussion on Reuben’s work and the development of various financial and legislative products – the most important of which was his development of asset protection legislation targeting the U.S. market in the late 1980’s. As the conversation continues, they discuss the Trust Protector concept in the context of Cook Islands law and how Trustees & Fiduciaries (Cook Islands) Ltd can serve in that role when it is beneficial to the client.

David and Reuben conclude the interview with a detailed discussion on the formation and importance of the Relationship Property Trust (RPT): a solution to a problem Reuben had been experiencing firsthand. When a family with substantial wealth over several generations would go through a divorce, family courts were determining that assets could not be set aside from relationship property matters and were instead brought back into the matrimonial property dispute. In an effort to ensure years of wealth planning for families was not dismantled, Reuben developed the Relationship Property Act (RPA) which identified that the solution was to provide a statutory rebuttal of the need to divide and distribute the assets and Cook Islands passed the new legislation creating the RPT to keep the assets of high net-worth families intact in the event of a separation.