HFFT Family Office (which shall include HFFT Limited, its parents, subsidiaries, associated and affiliated companies, together the “Company” or “we”) is committed to doing business in the most efficient and effective way possible and as part of this commitment and our commitments towards the environment, the Company is pleased to inform you that from 1st June 2021 (the “Effective Date”), the Company will be moving towards a paperless approach of doing business.
The Company currently retains copies of documents in both paper and electronic format and to avoid continued duplication as from the Effective Date, any new documents received or processed by the Company on behalf of, or in relation to, the funds, trusts or companies to which the Company provides services (each an “Entity”, together the “Entities”), will be processed and stored electronically, unless and to the extent that any relevant laws and/or regulations require us to process or store the same in hardcopy, or if the Company otherwise determines. An example of documents which may be processed and stored exclusively through electronic means, include minutes for relevant Entities.
The Company will also begin to destroy any hardcopy versions of old historic documents which are already saved in electronic format, except where the Company is required, or determines that it is in its best interests to continue to retain such documents in hardcopy format.
The Company currently uses SignEasy, a cloud-based platform which enables users to sign documents electronically in compliance with the Electronic Identification and Trust Services Regulations1, to execute a number of internal related documents. As of the Effective Date, the Company will endeavour wherever possible to send a request to all counterparties to sign documents electronically, using platforms such as SignEasy, and will refrain from requesting paper copies of, or wet-ink signatures to any documents from our counterparties, unless necessary to comply with a relevant law, regulation or requirement of a third party, such as a bank.
We encourage our clients, partners and stakeholders to interact with us by electronic means, wherever possible, but on occasions where paper documents do need to be sent to us or returned, please note that from the Effective Date, we may not hold original paper copies on our records and as such, we would recommend that you retain original copies wherever appropriate, for your own records.
Should you have any queries in relation to the above, please do not hesitate to contact Nicola Smith at ns@hfft.gi.