Carey Olsen

Carey Olsen is an offshore law firm founded in 1898, advising clients across Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Guernsey, and Jersey law from nine international offices. For family offices, the firm offers a dedicated practice covering trust structuring, private client law, estate planning, family law, and family office establishment across these five offshore jurisdictions. This jurisdictional focus is the firm’s defining characteristic: it does not offer onshore English or US law, so clients require separate onshore counsel for matters outside the covered jurisdictions.

The family office practice addresses structuring decisions that arise when ultra-high net worth families seek to establish or migrate wealth structures to offshore domiciles. Key capabilities across jurisdictions include:

• Discretionary trust formation and restructuring, including perpetual trusts under Bermuda’s post-2009 legislation
• Private trust company incorporation and governance
• Non-charitable purpose trust establishment
• Trust redomiciliation and cross-border enforcement of court orders
• Philanthropic foundation structuring in Guernsey
• Family law and HNW divorce matters involving offshore-sited assets

The firm advises clients directly cited as ultra-high net worth individuals, family offices, sovereign wealth funds, and trustees. It works alongside major onshore law firms and accountancy practices on cross-border transactions. With over 300 lawyers led by 89 partners, the firm has Tier One rankings across the leading legal directories and has won Chambers HNW Awards. Pricing follows a project or matter-based billing model typical of law firms and is not publicly disclosed. Carey Olsen is the right fit for family offices that need specialist offshore legal counsel in one or more of its five jurisdictions; those seeking a single-firm relationship spanning onshore and offshore work will need to engage additional advisors.