Summit Notebook
Exclusive outtakes from industry leaders
Trusts can help women win back their fair share
Investment trusts, financial constructions often associated to clever tax structuring, can actually help women inherit their fair share in countries were they are discriminated by law, a top private banker says.
“In countries where Shariah law is applied, being a woman is not as advantageous as being a man. In that situation, the trust allows the structuring to have children taken care of,” says Karen Simpson, the Swiss-based Head of Private Banking at Royal Bank of Canada, the world’s No.1 bank player in the trust business.
But that is true only for the very wealthy, as these types of constructions are uneconomical to set up below a certain amount, tax lawyers say.
In a world where rich people are becoming increasingly globalised and the number of non-traditional families are rising, trusts are a good business to be in.
from Global Investing:
Clear road ahead for depressed Dubai
Dubai's deepening real estate slump has brought unexpected benefits to its time-poor urban residents.
Speaking at the Global Islamic Financing Summit, Dr. Humayon Dar, CEO of Shariah-compliant consultancy BMB Islamic, said Dubai was a much nicer place to live now that the immature infrastructure system was not overwhelmed with construction traffic and armies of property speculators.
from Global Investing:
The best of both worlds?
Combined Shariah and ethical/SRI products could be the way forwards for Islamic finance investing, according to Dr Humayon Dar, CEO at BMB Islamic, the Shariah consultancy at BMG Group.
Speaking at the Reuters Islamic Finance Summit today, Dar highlighted the development of an upcoming F&C fund that will meet both ethical and Shariah investing criteria, and can be sold to both Muslims and non-Muslims. "I see this as the way forward in markets such as Malaysia, where a significant proportion of the population is non-Muslim," he said, adding that once such products have established a track record, it should appeal to a broader audience, and encourage other launches.
