Trusts & Estates

Overview

Our Trusts and Estates practice helps high net worth individuals and families and family offices with estate planning, tax planning, family business succession and inheritance. Our trust lawyers advise on trusts, wills and probate with a view to asset protection, inter-generational wealth transfer, ring-fencing of assets (whether in Hong Kong or abroad) from creditors, and the minimization of loss of wealth through potential conflicts or disputes among family members or taxation.

Our work includes advising on the following:

• Trust creation & trust administration, including the use of different types of trusts such as offshore trusts, discretionary trusts, testamentary trusts, reserved power trusts and family trusts, and the administration of trusts including through devising arrangements to enable a settlor (or testator) to maintain limits on the trustee’s control over trust property and assets, whether through private trust companies, letters of wishes, memoranda of wishes, or a reservation of powers

• Trustees’ duties, powers & compliance, including duties of care, fiduciary duties, duties to distribute and deal fairly as between beneficiaries, the powers of investment and sale, and other duties and powers pursuant to trust instruments and applicable regulatory requirements as set out in statutes, common law rules and equitable principles, including the Trustee Ordinance (“TO”)

• Trustees’ appointment & trust re-domiciliation, including the appointment and removal of trustees, the vesting of trust property into the hands of new trustees and redomiciling of trusts from a foreign jurisdiction to Hong Kong

• Beneficiaries’ rights & entitlement, including the right of beneficiaries under trusts to have trust property and assets vested in them, the right to distributions and the right to information

Our Trusts and Estates practice leverages our tax planning capabilities to plan for trust taxes and taxes on underlying vehicles as well as our capabilities in corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, private equity and hedge funds to facilitate the making of investments by trusts.