EXPERT INSIGHTS

Jeffery Chen Recent years have seen calls for the continued opening-up of Chinese individuals’ investments overseas grow louder and louder. Together, with both the arrival of global asset diversification, and the development of private funds in China, domestic funds are already following a trend towards investing in the global market by issuing overseas funds, using global strategies. Generally speaking, the function of overseas funds is to avoid risks in the domestic market and to grasp opportunities in the global market so as to assist clients in their global asset allocation. As for the so-called Chinese Overseas Fund, in reality, it...

EXPERT INSIGHTS 2020

By Wang Hao Introduction Along with rapid economic development, high-net-worth individuals in China are becoming increasingly knowledgeable about family trusts, a tool for wealth management and inheritance. The establishment of family trusts is firstly based on the confidence of a settlor in a trustee; however, in order to enhance the settlor’s sense of security when entrusting his or her assets to others, to better achieve the trust’s purposes, and to strengthen the settlor’s supervision over the trustee, many settlors choose to select a protector in their family trust structure, aiming to facilitate maintenance and extend the settlor’s control over the...

EXPERT INSIGHTS 2020

Liang Han The history of private foundations is as long as that of the trust system in Britain. Rooted in a continental legal system, private foundationshavealso absorbed some concepts from trust laws and modern corporate lawsunder the common law system, and have acquired some aspects of trusts too. However, running in a similar corporate pattern, private foundationsare a legal subject with independent corporate capacity. Therefore, the private foundation system is regarded as the trust system under civil law. I. Advantages of Private Foundations Compared with trusts, private foundations have the following advantages in terms of family wealth management: Perpetual Existence...

EXPERT INSIGHTS 2020

Derick Liu What is the age we are in now? We might say that it is the age of the Internet, an age short of resources, or we can argue that it is an age of excessive consumption; it is an age in which people are in conflict with one other. We want to understand each other, but sometimes have to challenge each other.But the trend is towards integration. We might recognize, understand, master, and promote this age from the perspective of "Chinese Globalization". One hot topic in the development of Chinese globalization is migration. Why is there such upsurge...

EXPERT INSIGHTS 2020

Dan Mitchell and Brian Garst The United States' aggressive financial disclosure law, the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), unquestionably got off to a rocky start. Its implementation has been much delayed as Treasury Department regulators struggled to enforce what has proven to be a fundamentally flawed law from its conception. Now finally entering into force, FATCA faces a new set of challenges as its many unintended consequences begin to blow back on the U.S. government in the form of political uproar and serious legal challenges. A Troubled Start FATCA was passed into law as an afterthought to “pay for”...

EXPERT INSIGHTS 2020

Wealth Management &Inheritance from Generation to Generation Thirty years after China’s “Reform and Opening Up Policy” began, hundreds of thousands of high-net-worth families have been created in the Mainland.Meanwhile, a huge market for asset management and inheritance has been created too. Currently, China's high-net-worth individuals are relatively concentrated within a certain age range, with about 70% of those interviewed aged between 40 and 60. While high-net-worth individuals’ businesses are entering a peak period and a stable period, their children are growing up.In addition to inheriting family businesses, the inheritance of other assets (especially financial assets) is also a key concern. If the...

EXPERT INSIGHTS 2020

By Beijing JT&N Shanghai OfficeXu Haibo and Liu Dongming As the wealth management of high-net-worth families in China becomes increasingly international, professional and trust-oriented, Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) techniques have become one of the main tools for establishing offshore wealth management. The key for offshore wealth management is the selection of jurisdiction, setup of SPV, construction of assets control relationships and implementation and arrangement for cross-border investments. In addition, domestic entrepreneurs for cross-border asset restructuring are using SPV techniques, return investment, red chips listings, family inheritances, tax planning and international trade more often. With the rapid development of offshore financial services, a...

EXPERT INSIGHTS 2020

By Robert W. Wood  The U.S. and China enjoy increasingly strong connections. Yet virtually no Chinese family or business relishes dealing with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). American tax laws are famously complex, and dealing with the IRS can be like quicksand. Of course, whether they like it or not, U.S. citizens and green card holders (U.S. permanent residents) must deal with the IRS.  They must file their tax returns with the IRS on a worldwide basis, even if they are resident and paying taxes elsewhere.  There was a time when the only Chinese persons worrying about such issues were...

EXPERT INSIGHTS 2020