IFSP Trusts Course Draws to a Close
The participants in the 2016 IFSP Foundation Certificate in Trusts Law and Management course have just sat for the exam leading to the conferral of the certificate. They were joined by students from the Faculty of Laws who had followed the trusts module at the University of Malta, topped up with attendance of a number of lectures covering areas not in their degree course.
This has been the thirteenth time the course has been run. It was attended by more than 60 participants, a testimony to the continuing interest in trusts. In fact, the IFSP has awarded more than 700 Foundation Certificates since the course was first held in 2003.
The IFSP Foundation Certificate in Trusts Law and Management is recognized by STEP – the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners as equivalent to its own Foundation Certificate, international recognition of great value to all who have been awarded the certificate over the years.
This year, the course material and notes provided to participants was thoroughly revised to ensure the content takes into account the changes to trusts law and practice in Malta since the Trusts and Trustees Act was first passed in 2004, a process carried out for the IFSP by Ganado Advocates.
This was also the first year for which Professor Gerwyn Ll. H. Griffiths has not filled the role of Moderator on the course for STEP. Prof Griffiths, one of the fathers of the trusts industry in Malta, passed away at Easter this year.
Profs Griffiths was instrumental in providing technical expertise to the legislator when the trust legislation as we know it today was being overhauled in 2002. Thus began his long love affair with Malta with regular visits to the island. Whenever he was in Malta he would be inundated by requests for technical assistance and to speak at events organized by the industry or as visiting lecturer at the University of Malta. He also served from 2004 until recently as lecturer and Moderator for the STEP/ IFSP Foundation Certificate in Trusts Law and Management which is still organised today in collaboration with the Malta Financial Services Authority. Indeed it was thanks to his contacts and efforts that the IFSP obtained STEP accreditation for its course.
Suffice it to say that Profs Griffiths has made many friends in Malta who will remember his energetic but gentle ways and his way of pointing out that he was “…a Welshman not an Englishman”.
The next IFSP Foundation Certificate in Trusts Law and Management will be held during the first quarter of 2017.
