Law & Commerce Trust Limited

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About Us

Law & Commerce Trust Limited is an independent trust company licensed by the Labuan Financial Services Authority. Law & Commerce is owned and managed by qualified lawyers and professionals. We began in 1996 with just one office in Labuan. We now operate from Labuan and Kuala Lumpur.

Our services are briefly divided into “corporate client services” and “private client services” You will learn more about them on this website. Through our associate company Offshore4Asia Ltd, we also offer offshore services from a number of other jurisdictions notably Ras Al Khaimah, Brunei, BVI, Hong Kong, Singapore, Mauritius, Seychelles, and the Bahamas. But we consider Labuan as our home tuft.

Whilst opportunities abound in offshore centers, it is our informed opinion that a client who intends to venture into it for the first time should be properly advised. The claims of low or nil tax, secrecy, and flexibility are too often either too simplified or unrealistic. You need to go beyond the skin-deep approach. It is “substance” over form. You do not acquire any offshore structure that does not work or cannot stand up to scrutiny. We are here to advise you and recommend offshore structures that work and can stand up to scrutiny.

The image conjures about offshore centers is rarely positive. At best it is of a place to hide wealth and at the very worst it is of a place where shady deals and dirty money take refuge. After more than a decade of offshore practice, we however find that this image is largely untrue. Of course, there have been centers that were battered with financial scandals before but such scandals did not take place in offshore centers alone. Major cities like New York, Hong Kong, London, etc have their own share of financial scandals too. Recent financial turmoil has shown that the fault line is not in offshore centers but rather in onshore centers.

The key to the success of an offshore center is more regulation as opposed to the lack of it. Further, structures to be created must have substance, i.e. real business objective. And we would like to state in no uncertain term regulation and substance are the features that we recommend to our clients when choosing jurisdiction and forming structures. Well-regulated centers will breed quality service providers and these providers are the ones you should look to. Don’t be hooked by the promise of low or nil tax and secrecy alone. The substance will determine whether your structures can stand up to scrutiny.

In providing our services we strive to create value and deliver cost-effective and excellent services to our clients. We are also guided by overriding compliance and best practice principles common in our industries. Such principles more often than not require us to place professionalism and ethical integrity above all else in accepting our clients.

We have been in the offshore business for more than a decade now. It has been challenging but nevertheless interesting and rewarding. I hope that you too will find your offshore journey interesting and rewarding.

Ahmad Kamil Mohd Yusop
Managing Director
LL B(Hons), CLP