- Nominee directors can protect a director’s personal identity
A nominee director can protect the operational executives of companies (whether they’re limited or not) from the many public disclosure requirements that exist both within the UK and across other jurisdictions. Consequently, whilst UK company law dictates that information relating to company directors must be registered on the Companies House website (and can be viewed by members of the public free of charge); a nominee director can protect anonymity and thus ensure full confidentiality.
- Nominee directors have legal duties and responsibilities
Although nominee directors appear on the company’s official records they can’t take over the day to day operations of the business. That said, they can act as a signatory for specified activities and these might include signing annual returns, dealing with the company accounts and acting as a secondary signatory – perhaps, for example, on a business bank account. Of course, the ultimate responsibility of a nominee director is to ensure that the identity of the company’s owner remains confidential and away from official records (unless they’re required to disclose these due to any kind of unlawful activity).
- There’s nothing ‘underhand’ about appointing a nominee director!
Many people are led to believe that non-disclosure of a company’s owner is at best, a little suspect! Whilst it’s easy to see why this might be perceived, it’s certainly not the case at all. Due to the very high level of legal formalities that have to be undertaken to appoint a nominee director, there’s certainly no room for any illegal activity and it must be remembered that the beneficiary owner will always remain solely responsible for all transactions made on his or her behalf. If using a nominee director service they will always retain full details of the actual owner, even if these aren’t shown on Company House records.
- Nominee director services can also assist ‘shadow’ directors
They may sound like a similar entity but there are crucial differences between “nominee directors” and “shadow directors”. Unlike nominee directors, a shadow director retains full control of the business’s day-to-day operations. This is often controlled by a power of attorney which gives certain (but not all) rights to the nominee director.
- Nominee director services can assist with all necessary paperwork
All private businesses have a legal requirement to comply with the Companies Act 2006. For new directors, legislation and different requirements can be confusing but nominee director services can assist with everything – from the initial set up of the company right through to its overall management. Ordinarily this will involve them filing a memorandum and articles of association and then drafting a power of attorney to give the nominee director certain levels of responsibility. This means that a director can legally operate a business but without disclosing any personal information. Put simply, this puts the onus onto the nominee director and/or the nominee director service to ensure that confidentiality is fully protected at all times.
