Proposed changes to Jersey’s funds legislation will help the island’s funds industry by giving fund promoters more choice in how they structure their investment vehicles, according to experts from the Jersey law firm of Mourant du Feu & Jeune.
Jersey is planning this year to introduce two new limited partnerships formats, which the lawyers say will offer funds marketers a useful “degree of separate legal personality”.
The changes are expected to be implemented before the end of 2009, according to Mourant funds lawyer Sophe Travis.
Modelled on the existing 1994 Limited Partnerships Law, the new vehicles will be known as the Separate Limited Partnership and the Incorporated Limited Partnership.
Limited partnerships are frequently used in fund structures but, at present, Jersey’s limited partnership regulations do not provide for them to have a so-called “separate legal personality” and must be handled as part of another entity, according to Mourant.
Under the proposed legislation, each of the two new limited partnership vehicles will have a separate legal personality. As its name suggests, the Incorporated Limited Partnership will have the additional feature of being incorporated, Mourant officials note.
Joel Hernandez, another funds lawyer with Mourant, said that there was increasing demand among fund promoters for limited partnerships with separate legal personalities, in order that the assets of these partnerships might be recorded in the name of the partnership, rather than that of its general partner.
