STEP Diploma - International Trust Management Suite: Syllabus Outline 

New Advanced Certificates  

Trusts Creation: Law and Practice retitled Trusts: Law and Practice (International)  

The two anti-money laundering (AML) modules have been moved to the new Principles of International Taxation, AML and Compliance course. Distributions, reserved powers, and sham have been moved from the current Trust Administration and Accounts course to this course. The short module on variations has been removed as the topic is one not often encountered in practice.  

A major innovation to improve the practice-based content has been the introduction of 32 specimen documents typically encountered by those involved in the administration of offshore trusts.  

There has also been a considerable expansion of the following topics:  

• Accepting additions into trust  

• Dispositive provisions, in particular, a power of appointment and power of resettlement, when and how to exercise such powers  
• Duties of trustees when distributing from a discretionary trust, risks including liability for foreign taxes and to third party claimants, and mitigation such risks by indemnities or court order  
• The administration of settlor-directed trusts  
• Variations of a life interest trust  
• Settlor’s capacity  

• Remuneration methodologies  
• Transfer of trusteeship  
• Additional analysis of administrative provisions to modify (a) the prudent investor rule, and (b) the Bartlett duty to supervise the management of investee companies  
• Choice of law post Crocianni [2014]  
• Protectors’ duties post Mezdhunarodniy Bank [2017]  

• Reconsideration of ‘firewall’ provisions in forced heirship and spousal claim avoidance  
• Use of purpose trusts for employee benefit and pension schemes. 

Company Law and Practice  

The modules titled Regulation of Company Management Business and Taxation of Companies have been moved to the new Principles of International Taxation, AML, and Compliance course.  

As with Trusts: Law and Practice (International), a major innovation to improve the practice-based content of the Company Law and Practice course has been the introduction of 88 specimen documents typically encountered by those involved in the administration of offshore companies.  

There has also been a considerable expansion of the following topics:  

• Lifting the corporate veil  
• Taking instructions to incorporate – duty to establish identity and residency of client as Controlling Person (for FATCA and CRS) and Beneficial Owner (for new register)  
• Beneficial ownership register, or equivalent  
• Review of reasons to migrate companies  

• Redundancy of memorandum of association in some jurisdictions  
• More detailed review of articles of association, comparing those based upon the old fashioned 1948 Act with the more modern 2006 Act model  
• Extensive revisions on module on equity finance and distributions, in particular, subscription, allotment, issue, transfer and transmission of shares, as well as the capital maintenance doctrine  
• Review of directors' service agreements  
• Inclusion of claims that may be brought by minority shareholders  

• Revision of discussion on fiduciary duties, including the ‘no-benefit from third parties’ rule and anti-bribery legislation cases  
• Revision of discussion of duty of care (Lexi Holdings [2009] cf. Madoff [2013] and non-ratifiable breaches  
• Revision on the appointment and role of a registered agent  
• Added new procedure of voluntary striking-off.  

New Qualification: Trustees’ Duties: Investment and Management of the Trust Fund 

The current Trust Administration and Accounts and Trustee Investment and Financial Appraisal courses are being combined, updated, and streamlined to create a new Trustees' Duties: Investment and Management of the Trust Fund course.  

In addition to new modules on asset allocation, structured investment products and private equity, this new Advanced Certificate incorporates modules previously covered by the Trustee Investment and Financial Appraisal syllabus, including investing in cash and on the money markets; bonds; equity markets; options and investment funds, and the four modules on managing trust assets previously provided on the Trust Administration and Accounts course. All existing content covered within the new Trustees' Duties: Investment and Management of the Trust Fund course has been updated and revised.  

The modules covering reserved powers and sham; distributions and variation and termination of trusts within the current Trust Administration and Accounts course are now covered by the new Trusts: Law and Practice syllabus, and the modules on confidentiality and compulsory disclosure of information will be covered by the new Principles of International Taxation, AML, and Compliance course.  

The accounting content which was previously contained in modules 1-4 of Trust Administration and Accounts has been significantly consolidated and streamlined with much of the theory removed, and a new focus on explaining to students how to prepare both trust and company accounts in the new Principles of International Taxation, AML, and Compliance course.  

The more specialist modules on futures and ratio analysis provided on the current Trustee Investment and Financial Appraisal course have been removed.   

New Qualification: Principles of International Taxation, AML, and Compliance 

As well as bringing together the international taxation, AML, and compliance content previously within the Diploma, the following new and topical content has been included:  

• Principles of International Tax Law and Principles of Taxation of Trusts.  
• Compliance: The Regulation of Professional Service Providers and Financial Services (example regulatory models, the role of international compliance bodies, emerging regulatory standards and requirements assessing and mitigating compliance risk); Compliance for Company Management Businesses (transparency and information sharing); the Principles of Fair Taxation and Other Transparency Initiatives (transfer pricing and Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS), Economic Substance, Disclosure of Tax Avoidance Schemes (DOTAS), Beneficial Ownership Registers (BOR), Trust Registers, Legal Entity Identifiers (LEI)).  
• Risk and Risk Management: What is risk, analysing potential risks, types of risk, risks specific to the financial services industry, strategies for managing risks (frameworks, policies, procedures and practices), risk management plans, monitoring risk management activities, reporting risks and risk review.  

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