Why Guernsey for the Middle East?
Supporting families for more than 50 years
Why Guernsey for the Middle East?
“Guernsey offers individuals and families in the Middle East a wide range of flexible and robust structures for holding and managing their wealth, as well as supporting their philanthropic goals. Our experienced private wealth sector - comprising trust and corporate service providers, lawyers, banks and investment managers – are well regulated and offer clients from the region a full range of services to support their wealth preservation goals. Many Guernsey service providers and advisers have deep experience of working with Middle Eastern clients and travel regularly to the region, recognising the importance of building long-term relationships built on understanding clients’ unique needs.”
Kerrie Le Tissier, Chair, Guernsey Association of Trustees
Why Guernsey for the Middle East?
About Guernsey
Guernsey has been a globally recognised leader in private wealth for more than 50 years, from structuring for individuals, to family office management. Supported by an ecosystem of service providers ranging from boutique firms to institutions recognised the world over, Guernsey offers clients a professional, relationship-driven approach, with women strongly represented in the sector. Guernsey provides a secure and trusted platform for Sharia-compliant wealth planning, combining modern trusts, foundations, and fund structures with a flexible, supportive environment. Guernsey’s service providers have proven expertise in aligning investments with Islamic principles, making it a natural choice for Middle Eastern families seeking stability, confidentiality, and globally respected regulation.
Guernsey maintains regulatory and legal independence from the UK, enabling the flexibility of The Trusts (Guernsey) Law, 2007 and Foundations (Guernsey) Law, 2012, however strong historic links to the United Kingdom are still important today. Private client lawyers and intermediaries in London and the wider United Kingdom work with their Guernsey counterparts to provide clients with solutions tailored to their needs. The well-established transport links to the UK and mainland Europe allow clients and advisors from across the world to easily access local expertise and solutions.
Guernsey
Key legal and regulatory advantages
Political stability and legal certainty -
A tried-and-tested common law system derived from English law, familiar and trusted by international clients. Providing clear, transparent and predictable legal outcomes, offering comfort and certainty for wealthy individuals and families. Precedent and case law provide a strong framework for matters related to trusts, estates, and family wealth planning.
International standards -
Early adopter of CRS, cooperative with OECD & FATF standards, whitelisted by the EU (2019) and OECD (2009) with a robust regulatory environment. Compliant with MONEYVAL standards and committed to AML/CFT.
Strong regulation with pragmatismGuernsey Financial Services Commission (GFSC) provides robust oversight while developing existing products, giving families confidence and flexibility.
Modern, flexible legislationPurpose trusts, reserved-powers trusts, and foundations tailored for dynastic wealth, family governance and philanthropic objectives.
Economic substance alignment -
Clear substance framework satisfies EU/OECD requirements, ensuring bankability and cross-border acceptance of structures. Adherence to CRS/AEOI, EOIR, and long-standing TIEAs with the United States, and other major global economies.
4 Why Guernsey for the Middle East?
Sharia-compliant investment capability -
Legislation supports Islamic finance structures (e.g. sukuk, Sharia funds), enabling alignment of investments with faith-based values.
Choice of structures (trusts & foundations) -
Flexibility to adopt common law trusts or civil law style foundations — supporting Sharia-compliant succession and governance preferences. Including Private Trust Structures (PTC and PTF), and Family PIFs.
Clear and direct succession planning -
Guernsey does not have mandatory inheritance rules, providing clients with the ability to determine how their assets will be distributed according to their personal wishes rather than legal rules. Middle Eastern clients can structure their estates according to their specific family or religious considerations without heirship laws.
Fiscal autonomy & tax neutrality -
As a British Crown Dependency, Guernsey does not levy capital gains tax, inheritance or wealth tax. Income tax is charged at the flat rate of 20%. Guernsey’s tax neutral system mitigates the risk of double taxation.
Confidentiality with accountability -
Non-public central register of beneficial ownership, ensuring privacy and meeting international expectations with verified access for competent authorities.
Specialist fiduciary sector -
Depth of experienced trustees, lawyers, and administrators supporting cross-border family offices and private trust companies, across 150 providers.
Client Structuring Solutions
Guernsey offers individuals and families a multitude of structuring options, which can be used separately or in combination with each other for more extensive and specific requirements.
The Guernsey Trust
Designed with flexibility at its core, including discretionary trusts, these can be tailored around asset types, how they are managed, distribution needs for both now and the future as well as considering settlor reserved powers.
The Guernsey Trust can also be established to incorporate Sharia principles, allowing for investment and succession in line with family and faith-based values.
Safeguarding the assets under the legal ownership of the trustees of the trust, within a secure and stable legal environment, gives clients the confidence their wealth is protected for their beneficiaries.
Charitable Trusts - Guernsey charitable trusts enable families to allocate wealth in a structured, secure, and professional way. By appointing trustees, families can ensure zakat obligations are met transparently, and that wealth is directed toward meaningful causes such as healthcare, education, and community development.
Why Guernsey for the Middle East?
Beneficiaries
Who enjoy the beneficial ownership of the trust assets
The Guernsey Foundation
Since their introduction in 2013, Guernsey Foundations have proven especially popular with Middle Eastern clients. They mirror the concept of waqf, where assets are endowed for long-term charitable or family benefit. A foundation offers clear governance structures, enabling families to involve multiple generations in decision-making while embedding the founder’s vision in perpetuity.
Civil law concepts are often applied when managing foundations, offering legal continuity to clients in the Middle East, and familiarity for these clients in their wealth structures.
Guernsey law allows for enfranchised and disenfranchised beneficiaries. Those which are enfranchised have rights to information about the foundation, and those which are disenfranchised do not have these rights. Allowing founders wishing to distinguish between beneficiaries who may or may not play a role in the running of any family business or wealth that is owned by the foundation.
Guernsey foundations also allow for no beneficiaries and can be created for an amendable purpose, allowing the family’s structures to grow and develop with them.
Private Trust Structures (PTCs and PTFs)
Private trust structures allow UHNW families to retain control and set the overall trust strategy, while the trustee carries out their duty of preserving and enhancing the trust’s assets.
They are often set up so that either the settlor, family members (including the beneficiaries themselves) or trusted advisers can sit on the board or council with a professional trustee, offering an additional level of oversight compared with standard trust structures.
PTCs and PTFs can act as trustee of trusts which house diverse assets such as luxury items, property and operating businesses under one solid roof built for bespoke asset protection and wealth preservation. Guernsey PTCs and PTFs are typically non-regulated structures, with the trustee required to apply for limited permission from the GFSC.
With a Guernsey PTC or PTF, should the limited permission be received, the risk assessments and anti-money laundering control fall to the licensed fiduciary that administers the structure, offering a streamlined approach.
Private Trust Structure
Family Structures
Family PIF
For Middle East clients, a Private Investment Fund can be an attractive structuring tool where professional oversight and institutional-grade governance are priorities.
A PIF provides a regulated, fund-like framework that allows families or private investors to pool capital and access a wide range of global investment opportunities.
It offers confidentiality while ensuring compliance with international standards and can also be adapted to meet Sharia-compliant requirements.
This structure is often well-suited to clients seeking a flexible but robust platform for investment diversification, professional management, and long-term asset growth.
The Family PIF cannot be marketed outside the family, however eligible employees can invest, with an optional audit requirement. These can be serviced by an experienced Guernsey fiduciary with the relevant licences.
Family Investment Company
A Family Investment Company provides a corporate vehicle that enables families to consolidate and manage wealth under a controlled ownership structure. An FIC allows for clear rules on shareholding, succession planning, and family governance, giving families the ability to preserve control while still benefiting from Guernsey’s tax neutrality and asset-protection advantages.
Particularly appealing for generational planning, the FIC can be established in jurisdictions that support confidentiality, estate planning, and cross-border investment strategies. It is often preferred by clients who value a private, corporate-style structure with a high degree of flexibility in tailoring shareholder rights and governance.
Scan here to read the full PIF flyer
Case study
Supporting a property portfolio with Sharia-compliant lending
“A well-established Middle Eastern family is seeking to expand their existing property portfolio with further investments in commercial and residential assets across multiple key markets, operating a family-owned asset management firm. They require financing aligned to their religious and ethical values, strictly from Sharia-compliant providers within a commodity Murabaha structure.
Following consultations with tax and legal advisors, a Guernsey finance company, property company, and purpose trust are established to serve as the central financing entity, to acquire and manage the real estate assets, and to hold the finance company management shares respectively.
Capital is provided through the Middle Eastern asset management firm, invested into the finance company for non-voting, redeemable participating shares. The Guernsey provider collaborates closely with Sharia scholars and lenders, ensuring formal approval for both the structure, and underlying assets, culminating in the issuance of a fatwa by a qualified legal scholar. Once the fatwa is secured, the commodity Murabaha financing can be introduced to the property company.
The family therefore is able to maintain their religious values whilst diversifying their existing property portfolio, utilising the expertise of Guernsey providers not only in the flexibility of their structures and local regulations but the principles applied to Islamic finance.”
Mary Humphreys, Trust Manager, Artemis
10 Why Guernsey for the Middle East?
Contributors
Guernsey Finance is grateful to the following for their contributions to this brochure
Greta Pender, Chair STEP Guernsey, Collas Crill Trust
Mary Humphreys, GAT member, Artemis
