Mr Leggat-Smith, president of the Monaco Association for Professionals in the Administration of Foreign Structures, confirms that the organisation has forty members and was created in 2004, although its foundations were laid in the 1990s, when the government of Monaco wished to establish a link with what are generally known as Corporate Service Providers.
Their function is the creation and administration of legal structures designed to hold assets on behalf of their clients, whence their skills in the management of financial assets, real estate and industrial clients, always achieved with the help and support of banks or asset management companies. "We have a mission," said Mr Leggat-Smith, "to protect estates". The stakes are high, even though the foundations of our society are changing and the heads of major companies are now almost entirely international. Their assets are accordingly organised in several countries, as is their life. Often lawyers or accountants recognise the STEP (the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners) diploma as the key to the profession.
Although the concept of "multi-family office" or that of the "trust company" is well known in Anglo-Saxon countries, there are also CSP clients from Europe (including the South), as well as Russia, the Middle East or French Africa. The clients are diverse and demanding: "Where clients are international, there are more complex issues, because we have to work in many countries, and the structuring of companies is also becoming more and more complex," adds the president of AMPA.
What is the exact role of the association? It is to represent its members to the Tax Authorities and SICCFIN. It is an active role; the association has been consulted on the modernisation of economic law or indeed on the technical aspects of certain trust-related bills. It also involves strengthening the resources against money laundering, in connection with the law enforcement authorities. And above all, as Mr Leggat-Smith likes to emphasise, "it means supporting the perception of Monaco in increasingly globalised financial markets. The more secure Monaco is as a location, the more the fight against money laundering is effective, the more respected it will be."
