S T E P Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners STEP Contentious Trusts and Estates Special Interest Group (SIG) Steering Committee meeting held on Tuesday 28 October 2014 at 2:30pm (UTC/GMT) at STEP Worldwide Offices, 7th Floor, Artillery House (South), 11-19 Artillery Row, London, SW1P 1RT 1. Meeting Attendees STEP Offices: Toby Graham, Farrer & Co LLP (UK) (TG) (Chairman) Emma Yeats, STEP (UK) (EY) (Secretary) Videoconference: David Wilson, Schellenberg Wittmer (Geneva, Switzerland) (DW) Telephone: Carlos Pimentel, Appleby (Cayman Islands) (CP) Keith Robinson, Appleby (Bermuda) Jonathan Speck, Mourant Ozannes (Jersey) (JS) Nicholas Le Poidevin, New Square Chambers (UK) (NP) (Deputy Chairman) Tom Mattock, STEP (UK) (TM) Apologies: Simon Beck, Baker & McKenzie LLP (Miami, FL, USA) Caite Brewer, Brisbane Chambers (Brisbane, Australia) Ian Mann, Harney Westwood & Riegels (Hong Kong) Tim Prudhoe, Kobre Kim LLP (British Virgin Islands) (TP) Shân Warnock-Smith, International Chancery & Trusts Chambers (Cayman Islands) Tang Hang Wu, Singapore Management University (Singapore) David Russell, Wentworth Chambers (Sydney, Australia) (DR) 1 KEY: = Action point 2. Minutes of the last Meeting The minutes of 14 August 2014 were approved as a true record. 3. Website and E-Resources 3.1 Forum Tom Mattock (TM), STEP’s Web Developer, reported that he is hoping to have the forum on the development server by the end of the week ready for testing. He confirmed that the capability to post directly to the forum by means of email reply would be in place, and that there would be the ability for a user to set their forum email digests to daily or once per week. TM said that currently the forum had been set up as unmoderated, but that this could be changed. He asked the Committee whether it needed moderation or not? TG said that the current setup was correct and that they didn’t require moderation. TG said the Committee weren’t keen on moderation as it creates delays and would require Committee resource to manage it. DW felt that it would be self-moderating in that people wouldn’t post inappropriate things given that any posts they made would display in the individual’s name. TG asked for clarification as to whether the forum would be open to all, or limited to STEP members, or even SIG members. TM said that anyone signed up as a user of the STEP website (Member or not), could contribute to the forum, but that they needed to register as a user the first instance. He said that were the desire to make it only available to a particular user group, that this could also be done. TG confirmed that they wished for the forum to be open to all at present. TG expressed a wish to demo the forum to members, both at Congress and the SIG’s AGM/Annual Half-day Conference day. TM said that it might be better to demo the forum in the form of step-by-step screenshots (static images), rather than doing a live demo in case of glitches with internet connection at the venue, time- lags with logging in and such like. TG said he would prefer to do a live version if possible, but asked that TM prepare a presentation of screenshots as back-up. TM to arrange a forum demo with TG and Anne Smith (STEP’s Senior Event Manager who will be present at Congress) before the close of the week (ending 31 October) for TG to run a live demonstration at Congress’ SIG lunchtime meeting on 7 November. TM to also provide Anne Smith/Hannah Maloney with a series of screenshots in a PowerPoint presentation in case technology doesn’t work on the day) Committee members will be prompted by TG to all go and post content ahead of 6 November. TM to provide all Committee Members with instruction sheet for use. Forum to also be demonstrated at SIG AGM 4 December 3.2 Trust legislation for various jurisdictions NP asked to revisit an earlier Committee discussion about the possibility of housing/ or citing the place to access the latest trust legislation for a whole range of STEP jurisdictions on the STEP website. DW thought this was a good idea, but thought the idea had been shelved for difficulty in its maintenance and ensuring it is kept up to date. 2 TG believed that all of this information was available in Spitz & Clarke’s ‘Offshore Services’ publication available on LexisNexis and wondered if rather than duplicating they should see if this subscription could be made available to STEP Members. Ask attendees at Congress if this would be a useful resource and if members would be willing to volunteer to keep the resource updated on behalf of their jurisdiction. Revisit discussion in 2015 4. Events and webinars 4.1 STEP LatAm Conference, 4-5 September 2014, Mexico City CP reported that each of the SIGs had an individual breakout session at STEP LatAm conference, and CP spoke on behalf of Contentious Trusts and Estates, giving an update on all the group had done to date, and future plans. CP said that whilst he wasn’t aware of any formal feedback comments, he thought it was worthwhile doing, especially to a new audience. 4.2 STEP Global Congress, 6-7 November 2014, Miami The Committee outlined an agenda for the group’s lunchtime breakout session as follows: - Present group’s mission statement, stats about the group after 17months (e.g. now up to 740 members with approximately 20% non-members) and report on activities to date - Enquire of attendees present what activities they would like to see the group doing - Ask for regional volunteers to help further SIG activity in that region - Ask for volunteers to provide links to trust legislation for their jurisdiction - Give a demo of the forum TG, NP, DW and CP said they would all be attending Congress. EY reported that she had included namebadges for the Committee in the materials sent to Miami for Congress so as to identify them as Contentious Trusts and Estates SIG Committee members given that the room would be shared with another SIG, should they wish to use them for the session (STEP Events Team will ensure that these are in the room, along with SIG sign-up sheets (although preferable to encourage people to sign up online at www.step.org/sigs-join) Committee members attending Congress requested to be present at the SIG’s lunchtime session Friday 7 November 13:30-14:15 EY to provide TG with the list of SIG members, recent SIG stats, and the list of SIG members attending Congress 4.3 Annual half-day conference ‘Case Update from Leading Trust Jurisdictions’, 4 December 2014, London EY asked for Committee clarification over speakers, and presentation titles and timings to finalise the agenda for the conference, and with it the marketing flyer: NP and JS agreed to swap presentation angles so that JS would cover the Court of Appeal decision in Investec Trust v Glenalla Properties Ltd, and NP would cover Crociani v Crociani The Committee decided to move the AGM from before the conference, to straight after. EY to make agenda amends and send in an email to each speaker asking them to confirm their details within the next couple of days TG to contact Robert MacRae of Carey Olsen (the new Attorney General of Jersey, not yet in post) to ask him to fill the slot of fifth speaker 3 4.4 General meeting 4 December It was decided for the meeting to mimic that of the agenda for the Congress breakout session, to include a demo of the forum. 4.5 Webcasts EY said that the next STEP webcast filming date was 22nd January 2015 and asked for any volunteers for a Contentious Trusts and Estates SIG slot. NP said he could possibly report on Crociani v Crociani JS said he would need to check if he was available to speak – if not January, then the following date in March/April. EY to ask Lysette Aiton from STEP Events team to follow up with NP and JS about their availability for webcast filming on 22 January 2015 TG enquired about the number of views STEP’s webcasts were receiving and how many of these were SIG members. EY detailed some of the viewing figures for past webcasts, each around the 200 mark. She didn’t have details as to how many of these people were SIG members, but would ask the STEP Events team if there was a way of obtaining this detailed information 5. 2015 plans for the SIG The Committee discussed and outlined the activities they would like to pursue in the coming year/goals they wished to set as follows: Launch of the forum and year 1 maintenance/nurturing 4 webcasts (filmed presentations) Webinars for hot topics/immediate release news items Events – holding own events and piggybacking on some of STEP’s larger international conferences Developing website resources – specifically getting a list of the most current trust legislation for a range of jurisdictions on the site 6. AOB None 7. Dates and timings of Future Meetings The next meeting will be held on Thursday 4 December (AGM) at STEP’s Offices, 5.30-6.00pm (following the half-day conference) EY to send out 2015 meeting dates. Meetings will continue to be held by videoconference (with phone option as back-up). Committee members requested to join by video where possible 4 .