Senior Advisers

Stephen Arthur TEP LLB CTA,

Stephen Arthur qualified as a solicitor in England in 1974,and as a member of the Chartered Institute of Taxation in 1975.  From 1980 until 1998 he was lead tax partner (domestic and international) with major London law firms, specialising in offshore trusts and structures and tax enquiry/audit cases. From 1997 until the end of 2005 he was chairman of the European Branch of the Chartered Institute of Taxation.  He is an accredited mediator.

From 1998 until 2002 he worked in Geneva as managing director of the Swiss trust company of a major international bank group.  He was called to the Bar as a barrister in the UK in 2002.  His practice focuses on taxation in the context of cross-border -wealth management, and the effective use of trusts and similar structures for long-term family wealth preservation.  He has been advising a substantial proportion of his clients for more than 30 years – not least because of his mediation skills and knowledge of offshore structures both in practice and from a rigorous academic background.  Acting as an independent adviser to families over long periods has given him many insights into the ways in which ‘the next generation’ can become accustomed to dealing positively with institutional and private wealth management service providers. 

Mr. Arthur is a well-known author on technical tax matters.  In addition to contributing to standard taxation reference books, he has contributed numerous articles to Tax Planning International, Tax Planning International Review, Tax Adviser, Taxation and other journals.  For 10 years until 2014 he was a tutor for the STEP International Trust Diploma qualification, and until stepping down in 2018 was one of the joint editors of The STEP Journal.  Stephen speaks French and Italian, and has some understanding of Spanish and German.

John Bender TEP

John Bender has been on the board of Bender Brothers & Co since 2008 and director of the fiduciary office since 2012.  As a trust and estate practitioner specialising in private client wealth planning, he has longstanding experience as independent trustee, PTC director, trust protector and investment committee member.  Mr Bender chairs a board of eminent lawyers as Director-General of the International Trust Arbitration Organisation and has set up a number of litigation teams for substantial cross-border dynastic and fiduciary disputes.  Between 1988 and 2001, he specialised in Asian equity markets at Morgan Stanley, Barings and HSBC with the benefit of being closely connected to a Hong Kong banking family.  

Mr. Bender is chairman of CANZUK International, an organisation advocating closer ties amongst the Commonwealth realms.  He was special adviser to The Prince of Wales's charities office between 2004 and 2014 as well as councillor of The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea between 1990 and 1994.  He is treasurer of a geopolitical think tank and is active in supporting the St John Eye Hospital in Jerusalem.  

Having been educated at Eton and Harvard, Mr. Bender obtained a Post Graduate Diploma in Law in 2003 and the STEP Diploma in International Trust Management in 2011.  He is a member of the British Virgin Islands Arbitration Group and a qualified holder of the UK Society of Investment Professionals Investment Management Certificate.  He speaks French, German, Spanish and Swedish.

Henry Brandts-Giesen TEP

Henry Brandts-Giesen heads Dentons Private Wealth team in New Zealand.  He advises leading high net worth families, entrepreneurs and sportsmen on trust and estate planning across a range of jurisdictions.  Specific areas of expertise would include wealth planning, family office governance, family business succession, trust law, fiduciary risk management, family/private wealth/relationship property related dispute resolution, residency by investment, cross-border wealth structuring, transitional residency tax planning, private funds, strategic philanthropy, captive insurance, global tax reporting and compliance, and financial regulation relating to private wealth. 

There is also a contentious element to his practice.  Mr. Brandts-Giesen has represented clients in a number of reported fiduciary litigation judgments.  He has been consistently ranked by Chambers & Partners Legal Directory in the Band 1 category (Individual and Team) and qualified as a solicitor in New Zealand (2002), The Cook Islands (2004), England & Wales (2008) and the British Virgin islands (2015).