Who can see an offshore policy, and who cannot

From the public, largely yes: the policy is a contract with the insurer, and the reporting it creates goes to you and to tax authorities, not to any public register. From HMRC, no. The insurer reports the policy under the Common Reporting Standard every year, issues chargeable event certificates, and you report gains on SA106.

Yes. The insurer is a CRS Specified Insurance Company and reports the policy's cash or surrender value, normally at 31 December, to its home tax authority, which exchanges it with HMRC (IEIM402120). Chargeable event certificates go to you within three months, and to HMRC as well where the gain is more than half the basic rate limit or there is an assignment for value (ICTA 1988 s.552).

Not through the reporting regimes: CRS reports, chargeable event certificates and the Trust Registration Service are not published. The policy can come to light in court proceedings, such as a divorce or a bankruptcy, and, if it pays into your estate on death, through the administration of the estate under a grant of probate.

Yes, if the trustees own the policy. Proceeds are payable to the owner of the policy, and HMRC treats a settled policy like other settled property (IHTM20012), so the money is applied under the trust deed rather than passing under your will. Whether it is also outside your estate for inheritance tax is a separate question that depends on the trust, the gift and your residence history.

It is not. HMRC shares TRS information only in limited cases: with someone investigating a specific suspected case of money laundering or terrorist financing who meets HMRC's conditions, or about a trust with a controlling interest in an offshore company. Even then it releases only limited details and withholds them for minors and where disclosure would create a risk of harm.

You do. Form E requires a full, frank and clear disclosure and asks, at section 2.5, for every life insurance policy with its surrender value. Interests under trusts, including discretionary trusts, go in section 2.14. A court-ordered assignment of the policy on divorce is not a chargeable event (IPTM3420).

If you own it, the official receiver recovers the documents, notifies the insurer and asks for the surrender value, and payments due to you go to the trustee in bankruptcy. If the benefits are held in trust for other people and the official receiver is satisfied the trust is genuine, it has no further interest in the policy (Technical guidance for Official Receivers, paras 33.49 to 33.55).

They may. Firms supervised under the Money Laundering Regulations must understand where the money for a transaction comes from where their risk assessment calls for it. For money from a policy, expect to show the insurer's payment confirmation and possibly how the premium was funded. HMRC's guidance lists bank statements and sale documents as examples of evidence (ECSH33358).