There are numerous members of the medical category who, in consideration of the patrimonial liability underlying the changeable and unpredictable risks linked to the delicacy of the profession practiced, feel the need not to jeopardize the consistency of their patrimony for the evident purpose of keeping the the usual standard of living, personal and family, and to continue, with serenity, the implementation of a planning project of economic resources which, usually, finds its raison d’être in a function of family solidarity or other legitimate interest worthy of protection.

These concrete needs, according to our international experience in the field of asset protection, can be effectively satisfied through the establishment of a trust which, with its inherent segregation effect, accompanies both properly protective and economic planning purposes.

Management instrument of Anglo-Saxon derivation, the trust institution has found full legitimacy, for more than thirty years now, also in our legal system following Italy’s accession to the Hague Convention of 1 July 1985 – rendered enforceable by ratification with Law 364/89 and in force since 1 January 1992 – which allows the citizen to freely establish “internal” trusts, whose only element of internationality is its regulating law, necessarily foreign.

The operational foundation of the trust is an act of patrimonial disposition, inter vivos or mortis causa, by which a subject (Disponent) takes possession of all or part of his assets by transferring them to the Trustee, so that said assets are administered in the interest of a third party beneficiary or for a specific purpose, as programmed by the Settlor himself in the so-called founding act, possibly under the control of a Guardian.

Following the dispossession, the assets cease to belong to the Settlor and enter the ownership of the Trustee, but distinct from the personal assets of the latter, as they are subject to a so-called destination constraint: the exercise of the Trustee’s property right is directed exclusively to the pursuit of the purpose previously imprinted by the Settlor and, therefore, objectively limited by the provisions of the trust deed.

Anything bound in trust, indifferently movable and immovable property, credit instruments, rights of all kinds and, in general, everything that can be transferred, constitutes the “Fund in Trust”, an autonomous and independent patrimony of the Trust, separate both from the personal assets of the Trustee and the Settlor. The separation of assets results in a strengthening of the destination constraint arising from the trust, connoting the institution of an intrinsic protective function: the fund

in trust is, in fact, not subject to any executive actions brought by the personal creditors of either the Settlor, the Trustee or the beneficiary(ies).

Using the “trust tool”, the doctor/professional can therefore dispose of his assets by establishing, submitting and binding a “Fund” in trust which constitutes a unitary asset, temporarily entrusting its ownership and impartial management to a Trustee and, for the effect, to create a qualified, ductile and versatile patrimonial function which is expressed:

in the punctual and serious programming and planning of family patrimonial resources, ensuring the satisfaction of the needs and any inclinations of the members of the family nucleus through an orderly attribution, according to precise rules, of the economic benefits during the duration of the trust, as well as the devolution of assets to the beneficiaries at the end of the duration of the trust;

in the unity of management of trust assets over time by verifying, through the control and supervision of the Guardian, the validity of the assignment to the Trustee as the subject required to carry out the project itself;

in the innate segregative effectiveness since the trust assets are to all intents and purposes “armored” and impermeable to any event extraneous to the trust that could divert or frustrate the implementation of the program outlined therein. From this point of view, the segregative effect of the trust has an intrinsic protective function, making the trust a suitable instrument for protecting assets and realizing their destination according to the objectives set by the settlor.
From this point of view, the trust is a more suitable instrument for protecting assets and realizing their destination according to the objectives set by the settlor/professional.