Bedell Trust UK Limited (BTUK) is authorised to act as operator of unregulated collective investment schemes(CISs), those which are not themselves authorised by the UK Financial Service Authority (FSA) and therefore which cannot be promoted to the general population. Close ended companies, eg investment trusts are not CISs and therefore do not require an operator. A non-exhaustive list of those entities which do  is UK Limited Partnerships and Limited Liability Partnerships, open-ended investment companies and unauthorised unit trusts.

Before unregulated CISs can be promoted, prior confirmation is needed of the high net worth or sophisticated investor status of the recipients, the requirements varying dependent on the type of investors and type of CIS involved.

BTUK's operator business falls into two categories as follows;

(i) A UK registered/constituted CIS where the manager/advisers to a CIS may not need or want to be regulated by the FSA, e.g. property fund or film finance investment. In those circumstances the CIS will require an operator who is FSA regulated to perform the operator function. In order for the operator to be seen to be "operating", the operator appoints the manager and other functionaries.

(ii) A UK registered/constituted CIS where the manager is regulated by the FSA but does not want to carry out the operator or other administrative functions for commercial reasons. This includes private equity funds or private funds established in the UK with an equity/debt based profile (or any other investment activity which is an FSA regulated activity).

BTUK was established, inter alia, in order to administer specialist conduit financing arrangements requiring it to be FSA regulated. One of its directors, Peter Hargreaves, had been involved already in structuring and administering tax transparent vehicles requiring appointment of an operator. As a result, BTUK expanded the range of services it provides to include acting as operator for such vehicles which we see very much as complementary onshore to the legally orientated trust business in which the Bedell Group specialises offshore.