Trust Services

We have the cultural background of the Chinese and aware the needs of customers of China and Hong Kong. To the interests of the beneficiaries in mind, we provide quality personal trust services for you and your family. Our extensive experience in trust is able to meet your unique requirements at different life stages of asset management and is able to design the most appropriate and tax efficient trust structure to provide a comprehensive financial planning solution.

A trust may hold substantial assets of cash, deposits, equities, property and corporate and also can according to the operation of the period given by the relevant local laws in order to let the trust asset to be generations continuation.

What is Trust?

A trust is a legal arrangement which provide global asset protection to persons with estate planning and confidentiality needs. It is a legal mechanism through which a person (the Settlor) transfers the legal title of his assets to another person or entity (the Trustee) with guidance as to how the assets should be managed for the benefit and enjoyment of the designated persons (the Beneficiaries).

Advantage of Trust

The separation of the legal and beneficial ownership of Trust properties offer special advantages and benefits such as:

1. Asset Protection

A trust can be used to protect assets from political instability, expropriation, protection from the imposition of exchange controls or protection from business or professional disaster.

2. Succession Planning

A trust may be utilised in order to ensure that the settlor’s family will be taken care of no matter what happens to the settlor himself. This would ensure an orderly transition should the settlor die. It may also be utilised to ensure that assets are kept out of hands of improvident heirs or potential creditors of heirs.

3. Tax Planning

Careful planning may enable a client to use a trust to avoid or minimise any kind of tax liability, although a thorough understanding of the client’s world-wide tax situation and that of the beneficiaries is necessary, in order to develop an appropriate trust structure.

4. Avoidance of Probate

Probate can be a lengthy and expensive process and is a matter of public record in most jurisdictions. Since the trustee becomes the legal title holder of the property, there is generally no requirement to use the probate process to pass ownership of the property to a settlor’s heirs.

5. Secrecy / Confidentiality

Offshore jurisdictions have usually passed strict confidentiality statutes to ensure that trust matters remain confidential. In these jurisdictions the trust deed does not need to be registered with any government agency or other authority and is not open for inspection by the public.

*This article contains general information only and is not intended to be taken as specific investment or tax advice and is based on the assumption that further information would be required and provides only a guide to some of the relevant routes that an intermediary could cover in advising the client.

A full range of services includes:

1. Establishment and Administration of Family Trusts
2. Incorporation and Administration of Private Investment Companies
3. Arrangement of Financial & Tax Advisory Services
4. Wealth and Estate Planning Advisory Services
5. Establishment of Local and Overseas Private Trust
6. Establishment of Local and Offshore Private Investment Company
7. Local Trust Administrative Services
8. Company Secretarial Services

Family Office

“Family office” originated in Europe and the United States. Most of the family offices we often hear are dedicated to wealth management or investment, trust and other related services for one or more ultra-high-net-worth individuals or large-scale families. The difference between a family office and general bank wealth management is that the service scope of a family office is not limited to investment, but more comprehensively covers financial, legal, accounting, taxation, charity and other comprehensive services.

Scope of services of the family office

Cash management, risk management, tax planning, charity planning, real estate planning, asset investment, estate planning and family wealth education consulting services.

Advantages of a family office

1. Establish a long-lasting family tradition and realize the inheritance of family culture
2. Privacy Protection
3. Has financial and tax advantages
4. Risk integration and centralized management
5. Improve transparency and trust within the family
6. Assist the family in the handover of generations
7. Centralization of professional services

How to set up a family office

Generally speaking, a family office will be set up according to the following procedures:

1. Establish house rules;
2. Establish distribution rules;
3. Outside the industry, use the additional funds allocated by the family to set up a family management office;
4. Non-family members must be appointed to be in charge of the family management office;
5. The family management office is responsible for family structure, participation in heir selection, inheritance distribution, tax regulation, charity and wealth management;
6. Family leaders authorize the management office to manage confidential documents and attend important family meetings when necessary;
7. Family members set up a family committee to oversee the family management office.