Canada Life and Zedra launch professional trustee service which 'supports' global families 

Canada Life has launched a Professional Trustee Service, partnering with Zedra to provide a simple way for advisers and their clients to set up and manage a trust, ensuring the rules and guidelines are adhered to.

In a statement on 23 May, Canada Life said the service will also help advisers and trustees navigate the Trustee Registration Service (TRS) introduced in September 2022, registration on which is a regulatory requirement for the majority of UK express trusts by the trustees.

The service provides a corporate professional trustee that will ensure all trustee duties, including regulatory requirements, are carried out on behalf of the settlor, trustees and beneficiaries. It can be used for new trusts and existing trusts where a professional trustee is required.

The service also includes registration on the Irish CRBOT Trust Register, where appropriate.

Stacey Love, tax, trusts and estate planning manager, Canada Life, said: "The Professional Trustee Service has been introduced to relieve the onerous requirements for advisers and their clients not only during the establishment of a trust and its ongoing administration, but also the ongoing requirement for trustees to update the Trust record on TRS within the appropriate timescales, when any relevant changes occur.

"Equally, the service can support the many people who do not want to burden their family or friends with the responsibility of acting as a trustee, or indeed where a Settlor may wish to keep their financial arrangements confidential. 

"This is especially important where family members are globally mobile, to avoid the risk of a lay trustee who is resident in an EU country being required to also register the Trust in that country, given that many countries in the EU have implemented full public access beneficial ownership registers, eroding the confidentiality of the trust as a result.

"The Professional Trustee Service alleviates both the responsibility on individuals, but also allays concerns over maintaining confidentiality under the EU directive which applies to all EU countries, including, to a limited extent, the UK."