Article published in the Magazine Private Banking January 2024

Dr. Alon Kaplan and Meytal Lieberman

In recent years, newspapers have published reports of “blind Trust” in connection with a mechanism designed to prevent conflicts of interest of public servant (“the official”)l, such as ministers and the prime minister. In the United States, blind trusts are regulated by the Ethics in Government Act of 1978. This law defines the conditions under which the official may hold assets, under via af blind trust, and these are:  First, the trust must be held separately from the official and managed independently. Second, the trust is prohibited from including restrictions on the sale or transfer of assets. Third, the official is prohibited from receiving any information about the trust except for quarterly updates regarding its value, income and losses for the purpose of filing tax reports. 

What is this “blind Trust” and what does it come to prevent?

Alon Kaplan

Many businesses in Israel are owned and managed by families. In many cases, the businesses’ founders are the family’s father or mother, although there are also businesses that brothers and sisters establish. The result is that the founders of the businesses may include individuals who have established a successful business and have a family, second or even third generation, for whom the founders seek an estate planning program and preparation of legal business infrastructure for the intergenerational transfer of the business and its management. Below, we will refer to the business founders in the singular