Secure access for existing clients only.
Not yet a client? Contact us to begin.
Senior-led advisory across private wealth, international tax, asset protection, corporate structuring, and succession planning. Every mandate is handled with partner-level attention and absolute discretion.
Trusts, foundations, and holding structures designed for multi-generational preservation and cross-border efficiency.
Read more →Cross-border tax efficiency and compliance across multiple jurisdictions, designed to withstand regulatory scrutiny.
Read more →Robust structures that shield assets from litigation risk, creditor exposure, and jurisdictional uncertainty.
Read more →Transaction structuring and corporate governance advice delivered with legal clarity and commercial precision.
Read more →Frameworks built to endure across generations and jurisdictions, integrating legal, tax, and governance considerations.
Read more →Structuring digital asset holdings, tokenised instruments, and cross-border crypto positions within compliant frameworks.
Read more →When private wealth spans multiple countries, a single-entity approach is rarely adequate. We design holding structures, trusts, and foundations that consolidate complex asset portfolios into coherent, durable legal frameworks aligned with the specific objectives of each client family.
The structure of private wealth has consequences that extend far beyond tax. Governance, succession, creditor exposure, privacy, and the long-term management of family dynamics all depend on how assets are held and by whom. Structures designed for one objective often create unintended consequences in another. Our approach integrates all of these considerations from the outset.
We design multi-tiered holding structures that provide clean ownership separation between personal and business assets, facilitate efficient transfer of wealth across generations, and position assets in jurisdictions appropriate to their nature and the client's circumstances. Panama, BVI, Cayman, Cyprus, and the UAE are among the jurisdictions we regularly work with for holding company structures.
Discretionary trusts and private interest foundations are among the most effective instruments available for wealth preservation, succession planning, and asset protection. We advise on the establishment and administration of both, including the Panama Private Interest Foundation, which provides a civil law alternative to common law trusts particularly suited to clients in Latin America and continental Europe.
For families with significant investable assets, we structure dedicated family office arrangements that centralise investment management, governance, and administration within a coherent legal framework. This includes advising on the appropriate jurisdiction for the family office entity, the governance documents that define its mandate, and the relationship between the office and the broader wealth structure.
This overview reflects general structural considerations and does not constitute legal or tax advice. Gallostone & Partners advises clients on the design, establishment, and ongoing management of private wealth structures across multiple jurisdictions.
Cross-border tax planning requires an understanding that extends well beyond domestic tax law. Where a business operates, where its directors reside, where its contracts are signed, and where its profits are received all have tax consequences across multiple jurisdictions simultaneously. We design structures that address this complexity with legal precision.
Effective international tax planning is not about finding loopholes. It is about understanding how legitimate instruments, territorial tax systems, participation exemptions, treaty networks, and substance requirements, interact with a client's specific situation to produce a structurally sound and defensible outcome.
Jurisdictions that tax only income earned within their borders offer significant advantages for internationally active businesses and investors. Panama, the UAE, and several Caribbean jurisdictions operate territorial systems. We advise clients on establishing genuine operations in these jurisdictions, including the substance requirements that tax authorities in higher-tax countries expect to see.
Double tax treaties significantly reduce withholding taxes on dividends, interest, and royalties flowing between countries. Access to treaty networks is one of the primary drivers of holding company jurisdiction selection. We advise on treaty-efficient structures across EU and non-EU jurisdictions, including Cyprus, Malta, the Netherlands, and the UK.
The concept of corporate tax residence is determined by where a company is managed and controlled, not merely where it is incorporated. Structures that fail the mind and management test are routinely challenged by tax authorities. We design arrangements that satisfy this test through genuine board composition, local decision-making, and documented governance, not through paper-thin arrangements that will not withstand scrutiny.
International tax planning is a legally complex area where advice must be tailored to the specific facts of each client's situation. This overview does not constitute legal or tax advice. Gallostone & Partners works alongside qualified tax counsel in each relevant jurisdiction.
Asset protection is not about hiding wealth. It is about placing assets within legal structures that separate them from personal risk, ensuring that litigation, creditor claims, or political and regulatory uncertainty in one jurisdiction cannot reach assets held in another. Effective protection must be built before a threat arises, not in response to one.
The legal basis for asset protection varies significantly by jurisdiction. Common law trusts, civil law foundations, and limited liability entities each offer different degrees of protection and operate differently when challenged. We design layered structures that combine instruments across multiple jurisdictions to maximise resilience.
Assets transferred into a properly structured private interest foundation or discretionary trust are, in most cases, separated from the founder's or settlor's personal estate. This separation is the legal basis for creditor protection. Panama foundations and Nevis LLCs are among the most robust instruments available for this purpose, each offering strong statutory protection that has been tested in litigation.
The choice of jurisdiction for asset protection structures matters significantly. We consider the strength of local asset protection legislation, the enforceability of foreign judgments, the fraudulent transfer period, and the practical difficulty of mounting a legal challenge from the client's home country. Nevis, Panama, the Cayman Islands, and the Cook Islands each offer distinct advantages depending on the nature of the assets and the risk profile of the client.
Asset protection structures established in anticipation of a legitimate but uncertain future risk are generally effective. Structures established after a claim has arisen, or with the intent to defeat a known creditor, are vulnerable to fraudulent transfer challenge in most jurisdictions. The appropriate time to build a protection structure is when it is not yet needed.
Asset protection involves legally complex considerations that vary by jurisdiction. This overview does not constitute legal advice. Gallostone & Partners advises clients on structures designed for legitimate asset preservation objectives.
International transactions require legal structures that can accommodate parties, assets, and governing laws across multiple jurisdictions simultaneously. We advise on the structuring of acquisitions, joint ventures, mergers, and corporate reorganisations where cross-border complexity is the primary challenge.
The structure of a transaction determines its tax efficiency, its governance implications, and the practical ease of exit or transfer in the future. Structuring decisions made at the point of acquisition shape the legal and commercial position of the asset for the entirety of the holding period. We advise clients to consider these decisions with a full lifecycle perspective from the outset.
We advise on the legal structure of cross-border acquisitions, including the appropriate jurisdiction for the acquisition vehicle, the allocation of debt and equity, the tax treatment of the purchase price, and the mechanics of management incentives and earn-out arrangements. Our advice is integrated with the commercial objectives of the transaction rather than delivered in isolation from them.
International joint ventures raise governance, profit distribution, and exit questions that domestic arrangements do not. We structure joint venture arrangements that clearly define the rights and obligations of each party, establish mechanisms for decision-making and deadlock resolution, and provide for orderly exit in circumstances that are difficult to anticipate at inception.
As businesses grow and ownership structures evolve, the legal framework that was appropriate at an earlier stage may become inefficient or constraining. We advise on corporate restructuring, including the reorganisation of group structures, the migration of holding companies between jurisdictions, and the rationalisation of complex multi-entity structures accumulated through acquisition or organic growth.
This overview reflects general advisory considerations and does not constitute legal advice. Gallostone & Partners advises clients on cross-border transactions and corporate structuring matters in conjunction with specialist local counsel in each relevant jurisdiction.
Succession planning for internationally mobile families is one of the most complex areas of private client law. Where assets are held in multiple jurisdictions, where family members are resident in different countries, and where the applicable law varies by jurisdiction, the risk of uncoordinated or contradictory outcomes is significant without careful advance planning.
Effective succession planning goes beyond the drafting of a will. It requires an understanding of how each jurisdiction's forced heirship rules, matrimonial property regimes, and inheritance tax provisions interact with the others, and a structure that produces the intended outcome across all of them simultaneously.
A single will rarely operates effectively across multiple jurisdictions. We advise clients on coordinated will strategies that cover assets in each relevant country, using jurisdictional-specific instruments where required and ensuring consistency between them. The EU Succession Regulation, the Hague Convention, and the domestic law of each country of asset location each play a role in determining which law applies and to which assets.
Private interest foundations and discretionary trusts offer a mechanism for succession that operates outside the probate and inheritance law of any single country. Assets held within a properly structured foundation pass to beneficiaries according to the foundation's governing documents, not according to the intestacy rules or forced heirship provisions of the founder's country of domicile.
The transfer of a family business across generations raises governance, valuation, and tax questions that personal estate planning does not. We advise on the design of business succession structures that separate economic benefit from management control, provide for the orderly transition of management responsibility, and protect the business from the personal financial circumstances of individual family members.
Succession planning involves legally complex considerations across multiple jurisdictions. This overview does not constitute legal advice. Gallostone & Partners advises clients on cross-border succession structures in conjunction with specialist counsel in each relevant country.
Digital assets present structuring questions that conventional advisors are frequently not equipped to address. Custody arrangements, cross-border transfer, tax characterisation, inheritance, and the integration of tokenised instruments within broader wealth structures all require a legal framework that is built for the purpose rather than adapted from one that is not.
The regulatory environment for digital assets is developing faster than in almost any other area of private client law. Structures that are compliant today may require review within a relatively short period as frameworks crystallise across jurisdictions. We design arrangements with flexibility as a core criterion, capable of adapting as the regulatory landscape evolves.
The question of who holds a private key is, in legal terms, the question of who owns the asset. We advise on custody arrangements that place digital assets within a legal structure that provides clear ownership, succession, and governance without compromising the operational requirements of the asset management strategy.
The tax treatment of digital assets varies significantly by jurisdiction and by the nature of the activity: holding, trading, mining, staking, and DeFi participation each attract different tax treatment in different countries. We advise on structuring arrangements that address these questions systematically rather than leaving them to be resolved on a transaction-by-transaction basis.
For clients managing significant digital asset positions, we advise on OTC liquidity arrangements, fiat on-ramp and off-ramp structuring, and the integration of digital and traditional asset holdings within a single coherent wealth structure. This includes advising on the regulatory framework applicable to each element of the arrangement in the relevant jurisdictions.
Digital asset structuring is an evolving area of law and regulation. This overview reflects general considerations and does not constitute legal, tax, or financial advice. Gallostone & Partners advises clients on digital asset structures in conjunction with specialist regulatory and tax counsel in each relevant jurisdiction.
Every engagement begins with a confidential conversation. No obligation, no generic advice.
Speak with our team →