About us
Turnstone is an international family advisory group with a presence in Botswana, the Isle of Man, Namibia, New Zealand, South Africa and satellite offices in the British Virgin Islands. The Group offers fiduciary, corporate management and family advisory services to wealthy families, individuals and institutional clients across the world. The Turnstone Group was established in 1999 as an international fiduciary service provider. Since its inception, Turnstone, with a combination of skills in the finance, legal and accounting fields, offers bespoke private wealth, trustee, corporate management and related services to institutional and private clients.
Turnstone Group has extended its array of services for the benefit of its current clients to include a full range of local wealth planning solutions for South African residents through our locally based company, Turnstone Advisory Services.
Wealth and estate planning today is necessary on a global scale due to the international wealth structures of clients.
Our team of professionals takes a long-term approach, working hand in hand with our clients, by offering comprehensive solutions and sound advice on both a personal and business level.
Our ethos ‘Trust Today, Trust Tomorrow’ makes us the partner of choice for private clients and families – helping them to structure, grow and protect their assets from one generation to the next.
Our Services
Family Advisory Services and Succession Planning
- Family and business succession planning.
- Multi-generational family planning structures, charitable planning and private foundations.
- Wealth preservation and estate planning.
- Testamentary trusts (a trust created in a will).
- Establishment and registration of Inter Vivos trusts.
- Establishment and registration of charitable trusts.
- Legal audits of trust deeds.
- Valuation of business interests.
Estate and Tax Planning
- Structuring of clients’ financial matters in respect of wills, property, investments, insurance, income tax and estate duty.
- Evaluation of existing estate planning structures.
- Assistance with the drafting of wills.
- Drafting of agreements related to estate planning and trusts i.e. loan agreements, buy and sell agreements and donation agreements.
Administration of Trusts
- Accepting appointment as independent trustee on trusts.
- Providing comprehensive administration, including the administration on charitable trusts.
- Holding trust related documents in safe custody.
- Drafting of resolutions and all related agreements.
- Facilitating regular trustee meetings.
- Employee Share Ownership Programs.
Administration of Deceased Estates
- Administration of deceased estates and winding up thereof.
- Acting as executor of deceased estates.
Local Company Services
- Formation of companies.
- Facilitating board meetings including the preparation of board packs.
- Preparation of company resolutions.
International Trust Solutions
- Establishment and administration of offshore trusts, foundations and companies.
- International Estate Planning.
- Wealth preservation and protection.
Turnstone recognises each client has unique objectives and needs. We undertake a tailor-made process ranging from the initial planning and formation, to the implementation and day-to-day management of the optimal structure for the clients’ benefit.
Family Advisory Services
Turnstone offers specialised and personalised services that include family advisory, trustee, estate, philanthropic and retirement planning services.
We recognise families have an identity and functions distinct from the businesses they own. Families need to define their identity, by formulating their vision, values and goals separate from the vision, values and goals of the business. Our family advisory services aim to guide families by defining a purpose driven vision, for the family unit, using the Vision Leadership Model©.
The composition of current and potential future investments, including the family business, need to be taken into account for the purpose of establishing a comprehensive family plan.
Our team of experts work in conjunction with the family’s attorneys, financial advisors and accountants, thereby designing and implementing comprehensive private wealth structures, using a multi-disciplinary process and drawing on expertise from across the Turnstone Group.
In joining Turnstone, you have taken the first step towards establishing ‘Trust for Generations’, thereby ensuring your family’s financial security as a legacy.
The final result is a structured family establishment with a clearly defined purpose which is supported by the family’s principles, values and various family corporate governance structures, such as a family constitution.
Estate and Tax Planning
Every individual should have a last will which is reviewed and updated on a regular basis. Estate planning preserves, enhances and protects assets during the lifetime of the individual and ensures the most effective and beneficial distribution thereof in accordance with the individual’s wishes.
Estate planning determines a snapshot of net worth, including assets, liabilities and income.
The individual should take financial, economic, social and psychological needs into consideration for himself, his family and his heirs. A carefully structured and written Last Will and Testament can meet many of the individual’s goals – including reducing estate duty liability.
Estate planning must also involve succession planning of an individual’s business, where applicable.
Plans should also be in place as to who will succeed him, who may inherit his shares on his death, whether the business should be sold, or who will have the right to income generated by the business.
Estate planning may also include the use of trusts, which enable the seamless administration of an individual’s estate on death, bringing potential tax benefits. Trusts also enable clients to defer the distribution of their estates on death and for the wealth to be utilised by successive generations.
Trust and Independent Trustee Services
Trusts in South Africa are one of the most flexible instruments available in the financial services landscape and are considered by many to be essential in creating various strategies for asset protection, estate planning and succession planning. As a specialist in the trust, corporate and generational wealth transfer sectors, Turnstone provides services to protect and structure assets and wealth.
Over the last decade, we have established a solid reputation in the financial services sector, through offering clients expert advice and reliable services they can trust. We assist and enable clients to create the most important aspect of their lives, a lasting legacy.
A Trust’s flexible construction and privacy attributes makes it an ideal solution for the efficient structuring of a range of complex personal and corporate situations. The flexibility and protection afforded by a trust are such that they have become an important part of long-term wealth and corporate management planning for many families and organisations. Turnstone has been acting as an independent trustee for more than a decade.
In South Africa, trusts are required to have an independent trustee, and professionals such as accountants and attorneys have acted as independent Trustees on inter vivos, testamentary and charitable trusts in their personal capacities.
Acting as a Trustee can be a risky and daunting position if you consider the following:
- a person in his personal capacity who acts as a trustee on numerous trusts becomes an ‘accountable institution’ in terms of the Financial Intelligence Centre Act (‘FICA’);
- in the event the trust is deemed a ‘sham’, independent trustees run the risk of incurring personal liability, because the professional trustee failed to manage the trust in a manner whereby ‘enjoyment and control are functionally separated’, as stated in the Parker court case;
- a trust license or the approval of the Master of the High Court is required in order to act as a corporate trustee; and
- the administrative burden on the Independent Trustee is cumbersome.
The Master of the High Court of South Africa has bestowed its approval on Turnstone to act as an independent corporate trustee for inter vivos, testamentary and charitable trusts. It is with confidence a family can appoint Turnstone as an independent trustee for its fiduciary affairs.
Company Management
The introduction of the new Companies Act highlights the complexities and pitfalls of administering a company in South Africa. Turnstone delivers a seamless one-stop administration service attending to, inter alia:
- company formations;
- facilitating board meetings including the preparation of board packs;
- preparation of company resolutions.
International Structuring Services
We provide formation and management of international and on-shore solutions, capitalising on jurisdictional advantages and regulatory frameworks. We provide assistance with establishing trust, foundation and company formation services in most jurisdictions worldwide including the Isle of Man, New Zealand, Mauritius, Botswana, Namibia and others.
Turnstone works with specialist advisors and refers any specific tax or exchange control concerns to our panel of external consultants. Adherence to South African tax and exchange control regulations are a non-negotiable requirement for doing international business.
International Private Wealth
The challenges of the preservation, growth and orderly distribution of the family’s wealth have been ever present and in today’s world of increasingly complicated international investment and taxation, planning your financial affairs, securing the best advice and structuring ownership of worldwide assets have never been more important. Working with a family’s professional advisors, we can put in place whatever legal structure is best suited to your needs.
Many South Africans share concerns over the country’s political and economic future, and holding a portion of one’s wealth internationally, particularly via an offshore trust or other appropriate structure, ensures the wealth remains secure and available for current and future generations. Certain jurisdictions from which Turnstone can provide such services, eg the Isle of Man, are highly stable, independent and well-regulated, all of which help to ensure peace of mind.
Some specific services we provide are:
- Estate planning and personal risk management.
- Advice on legal structuring.
- Trust, foundation and company administration.
- Establishment of investment accounts.
- Provision of Family Office Services.
Contact Us
Should you have any queries, please direct them to leslie.forssman@turnstone-group.com