Consumer Warning
23 November 2017.
The Asociace pro podporu a rozvoj svěřenských fondů, z. s. (APRSF) is a registered association
founded by professionals who share a common purpose to support and develop the regime of trust
funds in the Czech Republic. Its members include a number of large professional firms which boast
considerable experience and competence in this area.
Since the introduction of SF into the Czech legal system in 2014, and especially in the last 12 months
there has been a significant upsurge in the interest in and use of SF by Czech families to solve some
of the very real challenges they face. This includes especially dealing with inheritance issues within
complex families and ensuring that family business do not fail on the death of the business founder.
We believe that the vast majority of SF being established in the CR are being competently and
professionally structured, and this applies especially to those established by our own members.
However, at this time we feel it is important to warn the public regarding the activities of some nonAPRSF
members whose advice we consider potentially risky, and specifically:
- Some companies, which lack sufficient experience, are setting up trusts that are not
sufficiently robust to withstand the challenges of the future. This includes trusts with
inadequate documentation which omits important factors such as the method of
appointment of trustees and their successors - Some companies are providing taxation advice to families which can be considered risky.
This includes in particular, suggesting that they can place investment assets within their trust
but leave the returns from those assets outside the trust. Such strategies are potentially very
risky for clients and run a high risk they could be considered tax avoidance or even tax
evasion
For many families, SF are a fantastic tool that can be used to address many issues and situations, but
they only function correctly if they are structured correctly, both in compliance with Czech law and
tax codes.
For this reason, we feel we must caution the general public against using the services of companies
that are not members of APRSF.
We therefore encourage those interested in setting up the Trust Fund and the general public to
consider carefully who they work with and to use the services of competent and experienced
advisers