Bermuda will be hosting five major conferences in April, bringing hundreds of guests to the Island and boosting visitor numbers, spending and hotel occupancy rates.

The first of these major conferences will begin at the end of this week with a one day law conference on trusts at the Sonesta on Friday.

This will be followed by two separate conferences organised on Monday and Tuesday by International Professional Conferences at Elbow Beach, one on the electronic age and the other on anti-money laundering.

And the month will be ended with a well-known annual conference on mutual funds which could be the biggest pull for visitors. Defending Trusts and Trustees - A Conference with Counsel kicks off the season and the day long event which will be held on Friday April 12. At this conference, trustees will be able to find out ways to stay out of trouble and avoid long and expensive lawsuits at this new legal conference.

Leading London lawyer John Mowbray QC, joint head of chambers at New Square Chambers, and the doyen of the Chancery Bar, will be one of the key speakers.

"We are trying to help trustees and help trusts in a defensive way to avoid getting into trouble, and then looking at ways to get out of trouble, what to do if you are sued and what to do if you are sued in another country and what to do if the beneficiaries ask difficult questions," said Mr. Mowbray. The event is organised by Appleby Spurling & Kempe and New Square Chambers, and a panel of speakers will address a range of issues which deal with trusts.

Also speaking at the conference will be the chief executive officer of the Bermuda Monetary Authority, Cheryl-Ann Lister, who will speak about the new legislation and how it will affect trusts. "The title of the talk is e-Regulatory Approach to the Trust and includes the new era we are going into and will also deal with the OECD so she will explain to the trust people, by way of regulation, what the new regulations will mean," Mr. Mowbray added.

Another two conferences will also take place next week, Challenges to KYC in the Electronic Age on April 15 and Anti-Money Laundering Workshop on April 16.

The KYC (know your customer) will be chaired by Bill Storie and the Keynote address will be given by Munro Sutherland, the General Manager of the Bermuda Monetary Authority. The conference will deal with the changing opportunities for e-business offshore, international initiatives, digital certificates and the implications of the new New York anti-money laundering legislation.

Also speaking are Nigel Hickson, e-commerce advisor to the Bermuda Government, Martyn Bridges, partner of Deloitte and Touch, London, Barrie Meade, QC, Compliance Manager at AS&K, Rowan Bosworth Davies, listed as an international fraud and money laundering expert, Tony Nagel, Quo Vadis and Own Reid, President of the the Association of Bermuda Compliance Officers.

The Anti-Money Laundering Workshop will address some of the complex legal and practical issues which can and do arise in the everyday life of financial institutions.

The event will be chaired by Mr. Meade and there will be an interactive discussion based on a money laundering video, the definition of suspicion and the problems of constructive trust, a session called "preventing tipping off -a case study" and a session with case studies and "war stories" about money laundering.

The largest of all four conferences will be the annual Globalisation of Mutual Funds, which is organised every year by the International Bar Association and will go from April 29 to May.