Guidance Note: Advice vs Arranging in the context of Trust Company Business (2001-09-13)

Summary

This 2001 guidance note from the JFSC clarifies the boundary between giving professional 'advice' (unregulated) and 'arranging' (regulated as trust company business) under the Financial Services (Jersey) Law 1998. It sets out specific activities that lawyers and accountants in private practice can carry out without those activities being treated as regulated trust company business.

• Company formation: Discussions and correspondence with or on behalf of a client about forming a company, up to the point of signing and filing incorporation documents, or instructing a formation agent for a foreign company, are outside the scope of the Law.
• Limited partnership registration: Discussions and correspondence about registering a limited partnership, or instructing a formation and registration agent for a foreign limited partnership, are outside the scope of the Law.
• Document drafting: Preparing and drafting documents such as minutes, resolutions, trust instruments and partnership agreements for a client's consideration, and preparing and delivering execution copies to the client or their professional advisers, are outside the scope of the Law.

The guidance is aimed at helping practitioners determine when their involvement crosses from unregulated advisory work into activity that would require registration or licensing as trust company business.

Applies to

lawyers in private practice, accountants in private practice, trust company business providers