Legal and advisory support in Monaco

Tempest legal advisers are highly-experienced in working with financial institutions in Monaco and beyond, and dealing with both local and pan-European regulation.

Our partner Nathalie Tanzi previously spent eight years working with the French Financial Securities Commission and then nine working in Monaco with the Direction du Budget et du Trésor and the Commission de Contrôle des Activités Financières. She now uses that wealth of regulatory expertise to assist clients across the financial services industry on issues of Monaco law.

Our regulatory, banking and finance legal advisers can assist with:

• Banking, financial services and insurance regulation
• Compiling, and lodging authorisation files with the banking and financial authorities
• Restructuring banking and finance establishments in Monaco
• Interactions with regulators, including the French Autorité de Contrôle Prudentiel et de Résolution (ACPR), the Monegasque Commission de Contrôle des Activités Financières (CCAF), the Monegasque Service d’Information et de Contrôle sur les Services Financiers (SICCFIN) and the Monegasque Commission de Contrôle des Informations Nominatives (CCIN)
• Marketing of banking and financial products
• Compliance with European Directives, such as CRD IV, MiFID and EMIR
• Nomination of directors and managers
• Banking and financial contracts and legal opinions
• Outsourcing contracts for financial institutions
• Business introducers (Apporteurs d’affaires)
• Creation of Monaco investment funds
• Custodianship

All of our legal advisers have many years of experience working with businesses in Monaco and advising on Monaco’s corporate law. We assist companies with their day-to-day corporate legal requirements and provide strategic guidance.

Our legal advisers are also well-recognised for their abilities to advise on mergers and acquisitions, and restructurings of businesses operating in and around Monaco.

We work with entrepreneurs and corporate clients across a wide range of industry sectors and at various stages of development, and we advise them on all types of corporate and M&A matters, including:

• Setting up regulated and non-regulated businesses in Monaco
• Liaising with regulators and professional operators
• Advising on choice of entity and restructuring of operations
• Drafting contracts and general corporate advice in liaison with professionals, including notaries
• Advising on the launch of Monaco-based e-commerce and new technology businesses
• Assisting with internet site law, disclaimers and Data Protection issues
• Health and Safety advice and manuals
• Drafting internal rules, including employee handbooks and contracts
• Due diligence and data rooms
• Capital increases
• Restructurings
• Spin-offs
• Joint ventures
• Buyouts
• Corporate governance

Tempest is well-equipped to advise insurers, brokers and agents on all aspects of conducting insurance activities in Monaco, including liaising with regulators and assisting clients in compliance with the latest EU and local regulation.

We regularly work with European insurance companies extending their licences into the Principality of Monaco, and can advise on Monaco law issues in relation to:

• Preparation of licence extension files
• Authorisation for insurance and brokerage activities
• Contract review
• Role, remit and powers of Authorised Agents and Fiscal Representatives
• Questions relating to Anti-Money Laundering and Data Protection compliance
• Creation of authorisation files
• Review of distribution contracts
• Legal opinions on marketing insurance activities in Monaco
• Issues related to professional indemnity insurance for operators

With the growing burden of regulatory compliance affecting all our clients, Tempest is extremely well-placed to assist with compliance challenges, and we are increasingly providing training to businesses, financial institutions and Family Offices to help them stay abreast of developments under Monaco law.

Our legal advisers are highly-experienced in providing compliance advice and training, covering matters including:

• Ongoing compliance advice and appropriate regulatory filings, including in relation to Anti-Money Laundering
• Compliance training for banks, corporates and other organisations
• Compliance audits and the drafting of legal documentation relating to compliance (such as internal policies and guidance, internet site language, agreements in respect of data transfer, etc)
• Legal regulatory pre-audit and post-audit guidance
• Internal rules for compliance officers
• Training for bank managers in respect of new bank regulations imposed by the French Banking Authority (the ACPR)
• Training for professionals ahead of the exam to obtain Professional Certification to carry out financial activities in Monaco
• Training in relation to Anti-Money Laundering regulations and compliance
• Data Protection training and guidance
• Mediation training in conjunction with the Labour Law Authority, under the aegis of FEDEM (Monaco Employers Federation)

Data Protection law is becoming more and more sophisticated, and for clients that are processing personal data in Monaco, including for data transfer abroad, there is a need to comply both with the Monaco Commission de Contrôle des Informations Nominatives (CCIN) and with EU regulation.

At the same time, it is vital that businesses work to protect their intellectual property, and we have expert legal advisers in our team who can assist with all aspects of Monaco IP law.

Our experts can assist with Data Protection and IP regulatory updates and ongoing compliance, advising on –

• Compliance with Monaco Data Protection legislation
• Impact in Monaco of the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
• Drafting procedures, manuals and legal notices
• Risk analysis
• Assistance and advice on all matters relating to the collection, protection, use, hosting and archiving of data
• Assistance and advice in respect of trademarks and designs
• Advice on copyright and image rights issues

Our partner William Easun is recognised as one of the leading legal advisers in Monaco advising private clients and families, including entrepreneurs, sports personalities, investors, hedge fund managers and brokers. As a result, Tempest is one of the most experienced firms in the Principality when it comes to establishing Single and Multi-Family Offices and dealing with the associated structuring and estate planning issues that arise.

Many of our private clients now choose to employ the services of Multi-Family Offices to meet their private banking and wealth management requirements. In the last few years, Monaco has passed laws to regulate the activity of Multi-Family Offices in the Principality, with a view to encouraging more foreign residents of Monaco to favour local MFOs.

Our experts provide integrated advice across the establishment, structuring and management of Single and Multi-Family Offices, as well as working on the estate planning, wills and probate, trusts and regulatory issues involved. We are very well-placed to advise on the launch of Multi-Family Offices under the new Monaco regulations, including those that require authorisation from the regulator, the Commission de Contrôle des Activités Financières (CCAF), and from the Monegasque government.

Family Offices can serve as important vehicles for protecting personal wealth through the generations, and we deliver independent Monegasque legal advice as well as strategic guidance to private individuals and families, with a focus on integrity, professionalism and confidentiality.

Many of our private clients come from multi-national families and must navigate private international law and conflict of law issues as part of their global wealth planning and structuring.

Our partner William Easun is renowned as one of the leading practitioners of private international law in Monaco, and advises clients on both cross-border challenges and Monaco residency issues, such as:

• How to become a Monaco resident, and the implications and consequences of becoming a Monaco resident
• Monaco immigration and visas
• The difference between obtaining a Monaco Residency Card, and a Monaco Certificate of Residency
• The effects of Monaco’s adhesion in 2008 to the Hague Trusts Convention (“The Convention on the Law Applicable to Trusts and on their Recognition” of 1985)
• Monaco’s Private International Law Code of 2017 and its effects in matters of applicable succession law, national law election, wills, estates, trusts and capacity
• Monaco’s default position in respect of applicable succession law, and Monaco reserved property rights considerations
• National succession law and effects of an election by will to invoke it
• Monaco Common Reporting Standard
• The role of Renvoi
• Monaco “Tax Residency”
• Monaco and Double Tax Conventions and Exchange of Information Treaties

Tempest provides sophisticated international estate planning and asset structuring for individuals resident in Monaco, and their families, including advising on wills, trusts, private international law and the notions of renvoi, habitual residence and domicile.

Our partner William Easun is one of the most experienced private client legal advisers operating in the Principality, and works closely with overseas legal advisers and Monaco notaries to advise clients on Monaco law issues around wills, trusts and estate planning issues, including:

• Succession planning, and asset-holding structures for cross-border estates
• Wills and estate planning in Monaco
• Considering jurisdictional issues and applicable laws
• Drafting wills in conjunction with advisers in other jurisdictions
• Dealing with Monaco fiscal considerations in respect of wills
• Advising on the use of asset-holding structures such as trusts, foundations, funds and companies
• Assisting with the drafting of trust deeds
• Special use of Law 214 of 1936 (a Monaco law enabling trusts to be enforced in Monaco)
• Assisting with registration of corporate trustees on a special list of trustees held by Monaco Court of Appeal
• Providing Certificates of Law for Monaco Law 214 purposes acting as a jurisconsulte qualifié
• Sourcing a Trustee to act for Monaco residents
• Advising on Monaco estate and trust duty
• Monaco immigration and nationality for high net worth individuals
• Asset protection structures
• Winding up estates, alongside a Monaco notary
• Probate and estate administration