Ex-fraudster Elliot Castro was working in a mobile phone call centre in Glasgow at the age of 15 when he discovered that it was very easy to take over the credit card accounts of customers, and that he had access to enormous amounts of customers’ personal data – and the power to do what he wanted with the sensitive information.

Clever, and morally blinded by power and greed, Elliot Castro ascended from haircuts and CDs to designer watches worth £12,000 and first class flights. For five years he was chased by detectives and was finally caught in 2004 and sent to prison for two years at the age of 22.

He had spent about £2 million.

With time and scope for soul-searching, Elliot Castro decided to turn his life around when he left prison, and became a highly respected independent fraud prevention consultant. He is dedicated to helping businesses, financial institutions, and law enforcement departments keep their assets secure. His previous clients include Barclays, Metropolitan Police, IATA, UBS, and the FBI.

When economists talk about a “perfect market” they think of an idealised market where there are no barriers to entry and exit. This classical economic theory also tells us that perfect market conditions - free from trade barriers and restraints - ultimately lead to the best economic results for all participants in the global market. Of course, in the real world, there are no perfect markets. Other factors - human factors - are in play. It is fair to say that the global art market is an example of a market which is not perfect. Factors beyond pure economics are at play, and the art market has its own share of trade barriers and restraints. All of these imperfections add a certain fragmentation to the way that our clients approach their art collections. This session will look at regimes around the world, from the UK, to Italy (given that we are in Lake Como!). 

Frank Gardner is a British journalist, author and retired British Army Reserve officer. He is currently the BBC's Security Correspondent, and since the September 11 attacks on New York has specialised in covering stories related to the War on terror.

Questions Facilitator: Basil Zirinis, Sullivan and Cromwell (United States/ UK)

2024 is a unique year for democracy, as around 1.5 billion people will be heading to the polls for significant elections in more than 50 countries, which between them hold almost half of the world’s population. Having so many elections offers a unique insight into the state of democracy around the world, and we could see significant geopolitical implications resulting from these elections for our clients. In this session, we will discuss how to remain sure-footed enough to deal with dramatic change, as well as changing threats and challenges. We will discuss the need to remain flexible, how this may affect personal, trust or jurisdictional planning, and whether or not we will need to reconsider how we plan internationally. 

In a return of our popular debate, Nick Jacob and Richard Wilson KC will go head-to-head on this divisive topic.

What is new in the world of litigators, and what do planners need to be aware of?

With more and more people achieving the “One-Hundred Year Life”, how is longevity affecting capacity diagnosis and misdiagnosis? This session will look into what we can all do to encourage governments to adopt the suggested STEP proposal for a universal LPA arrangement, as well as considering if, and when, we should bring outside professionals in to assist with complicated clients. 

The Great Wealth Transfer is here and happening now - what does that mean for artworks?

We will include an analysis of the threats of families of reputational damage, how they can prevent those risks arising, and how to deal with reputation damage once it has occurred.

In this session we will explore reserved powers within the context of lessons learnt from the recent Ivanishvili and other cases through the three lenses of planner, trustee and litigator. What are the pressure points, which are the ‘friendly jurisdictions’, and how should we consider them within the context of heavily settlor-controlled trusts? What are the risks for trustees and how would litigators attach such structures?

Ann Pettifor (born February 1947) is a British economist who advises governments and organisations. She has published several books. Her work focuses on the global financial system, sovereign debt restructuring, international finance and sustainable development. Pettifor is best known for correctly predicting the financial crisis of 2007–08. She was one of the leaders of the Jubilee 2000 debt cancellation campaign.

She is the director of Policy Research In Macroeconomics (PRIME) a network of economists researching Keynesian monetary theory and policies, an honorary research fellow at the Political Economy Research Centre at City, University of London (CITYPERC), Chair of the Political Economy Research Centre's Advisory Board at Goldsmiths, a fellow of the New Economics Foundation, a director of Advocacy International and a trustee of the PREP Foundation for pluralist economics.Pettifor is a member of the Green New Deal Group of economists, environmentalists and entrepreneurs.

With elections around the world grappling between the left and right wings, taxation for the wealthy is a hot topic and could tilt either way in several countries. The UK had already abolished the non-dom regime even before the general election was called in the summer, and we are sure that there will be hefty changes in both the United States and Europe too. This session will focus on these changes as they are happening. 

We will consider multiple jurisdictions and how their international global matrimonial regimes work, the civil effects on multi-jurisdictional couples (such as cohabitation), and how these work in the context of trusts and attacks. 

How do you get past your clients gatekeepers, and do you need to? Are they indeed in the way, and can they stand up to the p/matriarch in the first place? How are they organized? How do we handle it when one of our clients wants to ‘sneak’ around their Family Office directly to the lawyers when they want to do something they would not approve of? What do they do right, and what do they do wrong?

This session will examine the X-Trust judgment from the Privy Counsel, with a potential case-study (the evil stepmother protector).

We will consider wills, trusts and foundations.

Margaux Masterclass with Alexander Van Beek, General Manager of Chateau Giscours, Hosted by Cadell+Co

Our popular Saturday open-forum returns.