Description

In this fourth seminar jointly organised by the Centre for Banking and Finance Law at the National University of Singapore and the Liechtenstein House of Finance at the University of Liechtenstein. The visiting scholars from Liechtenstein will examine selected issues and options facing wealth management service providers and investors in their quest for effective and efficient ways to grow and maximise wealth. Issues will be examined from both an academic and practitioner’s perspective.

About The Speaker & Presentation Synopses

Professor Dr. Francesco A Schurr holds the Chair of Company, Foundation and Trust Law at the University of Liechtenstein. He is Program Director of the Master of Laws (LL.M.) in Company, Foundation, and Trust Law. Francesco’s main research interests are Wealth Structures, Asset Protection and Philanthropy. He is admitted to the bar in Italy and Germany. Francesco has published numerous articles and books on Consumer Protection Law, Law of Foundations, Trust Law, Contracts and European Private Law.

New “Private Foundation Statutes” in Common Law Jurisdictions and International Financial Centres – a Comparative Analysis
Several common law jurisdictions and international financial centres have recently introduced statutory provisions that enable the offshore industry to use private foundations for their clients (e.g. Barbados, Guernsey, Cook Islands, Isle of Man, Labuan). The concept of private foundations originated in the Liechtenstein legislation of 1926. The paper will focus on the different legal models of private foundations in the common law environment as contained in the recent pieces of legislation. The use of private foundations for the mitigation of forced heirship and the protection of assets as well as their international recognition will be discussed from a comparative perspective.

Professor Dr Martin Wenz holds the Chair in Tax Management and the Laws of International and Liechtenstein Taxation and is the Head of the Institute for Finance at the University of Liechtenstein with main research interests in the analysis and design of tax systems, international tax cooperation and taxation of individuals, companies, private and charitable asset structures and financial instruments. He also gives advice to the Liechtenstein Government regarding national tax law, global tax standards and international tax cooperation including the negotiation of Double Tax and other Tax Agreements between Liechtenstein and other countries.

Global Standardisation and National Isolation of Tax Law – Impact of Tax Transparency and Tax Principles as well as BREXIT and US-Destination Based Cash Flow Taxation on the Tax Treatment of Investors, Companies and Asset Structures
The main hotspots in international and national taxation are currently the global standards on automatic exchange of information (AEoI) and the global requirements according to the principles of the OECD project on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) as well as the decision of the UK to leave the EU (BREXIT) and the announcement of the US to introduce a US-Destination-based Cash Flow Taxation. All these developments are likely to lead to a comprehensive global standardization but also to a national isolation of the national and international tax laws of the different states at least for cross-border cases. Moreover, tax competition between states may further increase and also the possibility of jurisdictions to levy tax revenue.

Professor Dr Michael Hanke holds the Chair in Finance, Institute for Finance, and is Vice Rector for Teaching and Learning at the University of Liechtenstein. His main research interests are in Asset Allocation, Financial Simulation and Optimization, and Pension Finance.

PRIX – a Risk Index for Global Private Investors
Starting from a discussion of existing risk measures and desirable properties of a risk index, we construct a universal (asset-class-independent) portfolio risk measure by modifying Financial Turbulence of Kritzman and Li (2010). Applying this risk measure to the average portfolio of a representative global private investor, we derive the Private Investor Risk IndeX. We show that this index exhibits commonly expected properties of risk indices, such as proper reaction to well-known historical market events, persistence in time and forecasting power for both risk and returns to risk.

Professor Dr Nicolas Raschauer holds the Propter Homines Chair of Banking and Securities Law, at the University of Liechtenstein. His main research interests are European Financial Markets Regulation and other relevant fields of Public Economic Law, especially Data Protection Law.

Banking Supervision under the European Single Supervisory Mechanism Regulation
The Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM) is the name for the mechanism which has granted the European Central Bank (ECB) a supervisory role to monitor the financial stability of systemic relevant banks based in participating European states, starting from 4 November 2014. Eurozone states are obliged to participate, while Member states of the European Union outside the Eurozone can voluntarily participate. As of 3 November 2014, none of the non-Eurozone member states had opted to join. The SSM is the first established part of the EU banking union, and will function in conjunction to the Single Resolution Mechanism. The SSM operates as a system of common bank supervision in the EU that involves national supervisors and the European Central Bank. The ECB is endowed with final supervisory authority while national supervisors are in a supporting role.