Jurisdictions / Nevis

Where, in part, the statute is ours.

Members of our team participated in the 2015 revisions to the Nevis International Exempt Trust Ordinance and the Nevis Limited Liability Company Ordinance. The legislation we operate under, in this jurisdiction, was drafted with our involvement.

The 2015 amendments.

The Nevis International Exempt Trust Ordinance and the Nevis Limited Liability Company Ordinance were both amended in 2015 in ways that materially strengthened the protective architecture. Among the consequential provisions: creditors must litigate locally rather than in their home jurisdiction; substantial bonds must be posted before claims may proceed; and the evidentiary standard for setting aside a transfer is high enough to deter all but the most well-funded plaintiffs. Members of our team contributed to the drafting of these revisions.

Multiform foundations.

Beyond trusts and LLCs, Nevis offers a multiform foundation regime, which we administer. The multiform foundation is particularly useful where civil-law counterparties or beneficiaries require a structure their own legal tradition recognizes, and where the planning calls for a vehicle whose governance can be tailored across common-law and civil-law conventions in a single instrument.

Why we work here.

The firm opened its Nevis office in 2012. The legislative work in 2015 was a function of long acquaintance with the jurisdiction's officials, the local bar, and the substantive problems the statute was meant to solve. That acquaintance continues to inform every structure we administer here.

The legislation we work under.

Nevis International Exempt Trust Ordinance

NIETO · 1996; amended 2015

The original NIETO included an explicit creditor-bond requirement and a beyond-reasonable-doubt fraudulent-transfer threshold. The 2015 amendments — drafted with the firm’s involvement — corrected a long-standing scrivener’s error and tightened the protective architecture across five substantive points.

§ 13: Persons with power over the trust must disregard instructions given under duress.
§ 23(3): Fixed one-year window for fraudulent-transfer claims, beginning when the creditor's cause of action accrues.
§ 23(4): Transfers in trust before the creditor's cause of action accrues cannot be set aside as fraudulent.
§ 23(9): No Mareva injunctions or Anton Piller orders against international trusts.
§ 55: EC $270,000 bond required before a creditor may proceed against a Nevis-registered trust.

Nevis Limited Liability Company Ordinance

NLLCO · 1995; amended 2015

The Nevis LLC framework, materially strengthened in 2015 with the firm’s drafting input.

§ 43(3): Charging order is the exclusive remedy against a debtor-member's interest.
§ 43(11): Charging orders expire after three years and may not be renewed.
§ 43A(1): Fraudulent-transfer claims require beyond-reasonable-doubt proof of intent to defraud and member insolvency.
§ 43A(16): EC $100,000 bond required before any creditor action against an LLC member or property.

Nevis Multiform Foundations Ordinance

NMFO · 2004

A foundation regime that bridges common-law and civil-law conventions in a single instrument — useful where civil-law counterparties or beneficiaries require a structure their own legal tradition recognizes.

Services from this office

Asset Protection Trusts
Asset Protection LLCs
International Business Companies
Multiform Foundations

Office

Lighthouse Trust Nevis Limited · Lighthouse Management Services, LLC

Arthur Evelyn BuildingCharlestown, NevisSaint Christopher & Nevis

+1 786 442 1516

Lighthouse Trust · Nevis

Discuss Nevis structures with the firm.

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