Industrial Provident Societies

= UK legal structure friendly to multistakeholder and cooperative arrangements

Discussion

Josef-Davies Coates:

"This is particularly suited to crowd funding stuff as IPS's are exempt from certain parts of financial regulation. The are by law one member one vote, regardless of the amount of shares owned and no one person can invest more than £20,000. All members have the right to stand for and elect the board.

One new set of Model Rules, the "Multistakeholder Cooperative" or "Somerset Rules" are the first to enable non-user members, i.e. people whose only relationship with the co-op is that of an investor to have a share of the vote, but it is limited to a maximum of 25% of the vote."

More Information

1. Somerset rules, at http://files.uniteddiversity.com/Legal_Structures_etc/Somerset_Rules-Multistakeholder_IPS_Model_rules.pdf
2. More info about LLPs and IPSs here: http://uniteddiversity.com/replicate/legal-structures/