As everyone reading this is aware, we are in uncharted waters at the moment. The coronavirus is having impacts on our lives, on families and on businesses that would be impossible to imagine just a few months ago.
One of the few positives for us at SFT is that we can now see the protective functions of some of our clients’ SF coming into effect. These families’ trusts will help keep them safe and protect their assets through this very difficult time.
In this blog post we will try to explain how this works and how we are helping many of our current clients feel a little more secure in the current environment.
In 1907, Robert Baden-Powell came up with a motto for his new organisation, the Scouts. “Be Prepared”.
On hearing the motto, someone asked Mr Baden-Powell the inevitable follow-up question: “Prepared for what?”
“Why, for any old thing,” he replied.
The motto is still used now, more than 100 years later. It is still used because it is good advice, not just for the scouts, but for all of us. Often, when we speak to clients who are establishing trusts, we need to remind them that their trust could last for 100 years – or sometimes even longer. 100 years is a long time. Think for example about the events of the last 100 years. For someone founding a trust in 1920, it would have been impossible to foresee the dramatic events laying in wait on the road ahead.
We have clients who do business in a range of different sectors. Some are not affected by current events, but most of us are suffering financially, some to a lesser extent, others very substantially.
For example, we have clients with businesses in the travel and tourism sector.
When they set up their trusts, these clients’ businesses were generally very successful and profitable. Recent years have been very kind to the tourism sector in the CR. They had no real reason to fear and their futures looked bright. Even so, some of these business owners followed the Scout motto and established asset protection SF.
Now those businesses are in trouble. In most cases, they have lost 100% of their revenue but not 100% of their costs. Perhaps the Government will help? But even if it does, it will take a long time to recover, and most probably some of these (otherwise sound, well-managed) businesses will fail.
But for our clients, the ones who cleverly ‘bought an umbrella while the sun was shining’, their family assets, and to some extent their existing lifestyles, are protected.
It’s probably too late now to set up protection against the current crisis. But it is not too late to protect your family against the next one – whatever it is.
If you are stuck at home with time on your hands, we are available to talk by Skype, Whatsapp, and of course telephone.
We wish you good health and all the best through these challenging times.
