Our Law offices have handled many Trust Law cases on behalf of our clients.
Testamentary Trusts or pour over wills, created while the testator was alive, empty the deceased's assets into a trust at death. These are found in certain wills and can cause enormous problems under Greek Civil law. The trust is not recognized under the laws of Greece as an entity (does not have the same rights as personhood), thereby it (or its representatives) cannot appear in a court as a party, file taxes as an entity or address an administrative office. Additionally, the trust's representatives are not the Trust. The executor or the trustee is a separate entity from the trust, not the agent for the trust, under Greek law. Placing Greek land or immovable property located in Greece into a Trust formed outside of Greece can severely damage the chain of title to land.
The Greek Courts will often view a trust as a strange type of American or foreign Will that they will give no credence to. Even if within the Trust there is a choice of laws clause that clearly states that the laws of the foreign jurisdiction control, the trust is not recognized, therefore the controlling laws makes no difference. The trust creates a limbo for any asset put into it.
The primary reason for this is that under civil law property is only recognized as having a legal title, while under common law; property also has an equitable title. Many countries in Europe also face challenges when confronted with foreign trusts and the recognition of trusts in many civil law countries is due to legislation or through the Hague Treaty- recognition of trusts, which Greece is not a signatory.
Our offices can help an executor or trustee work through the options. The Trust issue is a "conflict of laws" issue that requires knowledge of foreign trusts as well as Greek civil law. For additional information our article "Greek Trusts" can outline some of the problems and issues. We have successfully settled many trust issues here in Greece for our clients