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Executive Summary:Hong Kong has thrived historically as a trading entrepot serving many Asia Pacific countries and also as a low-cost manufacturing centre, and has turned towards the provision of services, particularly financial services. Its economic success is largely based on a whole-hearted adherence to free and open trade, the values encompassed in a British common law legal system and a laissez-faire, non-interventionist attitude on the part of government. There are few if any significant barriers to investment by foreigners. The government has consistently followed business friendly policies and continues to do so.It is not an 'offshore' jurisdiction as such, but...

2020

By Mark Lea.  Many articles provide information on a particular new law or on what a particular country offers. Such an article really deals with what the writer, or those he represents, wish the reader to know and use. Hopefully this article looks through the spectacles of the reader, who is the Chinese resident business man. The pertinent questions are what this reader wants and needs and what solutions there may be to assist him.The Wishes And Needs of The Client:Many clients have different requirements from others. Even if they have the same requirements, their circumstances may be different. However,...

EXPERT INSIGHTS 2020

Introduction.  In 2007 the BVI Financial Services (Exemptions) Amendment Regulations (the “Regulations”) established the British Virgin Islands as a modern and sophisticated jurisdiction in which to incorporate private trust companies (“PTC”). As most countries in Asia practice civil law, the idea of transferring your wealth to a third party is considered unfavourable. However there has been a significant increase in the past couple of years. According to the BVI Financial Services Commission Statistical Bulletin (Q1 2014, Vol. 34, March 2014), the BVI had 1,032 active PTCs. This was an increase of more than 83 per cent from the figures one...

EXPERT INSIGHTS 2020

By Hao Wang.  With the advent of the new century, China has further accelerated its pace of economic growth. In this tide, there have emerged a growing number of eminent persons and countless family enterprises. In the second decade of the new century, a staggering amount of family wealth has been accumulated in China, bringing about some new questions, such as how to pass on wealth effectively and how to ensure smooth transition of a family enterprise from one generation to the next generation. During the process of exploring answers to these questions, the trust – an ancient system in...

EXPERT INSIGHTS 2020

By Xu Haibo. As one of the major types of civil trusts, The trust structure is currently at its infancy in China. The development of the family trust will represent the general trend in the foreseeable future. This is primarily due to the robust growth of the economy and the internationalized financial management of wealth Chinese families. Based on its unparalleled system advantages, family trust has played a key role in planning and managing wealth of a whole family. It has gradually become an international practice to plan family relations, corporate governance and intergenerational transfer of various interests through contract...

EXPERT INSIGHTS 2020

Introduction The problems of preservation of wealth and succession planning have attracted increasing attention in China over the past decade, particularly as the first generation entrepreneurs who were enriched and empowered by China’s economic reforms started to age and retire. The use of trust structures appears to be a viable solution, but the concept is, as some would argue, not supported in full by the current legal and regulatory system in China. Setting up offshore trusts, particularly in the Cayman Islands and the British Virgin Islands, has become a popular, though often not well-understood, choice for Chinese HNWIs. This article...

EXPERT INSIGHTS 2020

By Andrew J. Toles.Several years ago, though I had no experience in the mountains, I decided to climb one of America’s tallest peaks. I quickly learned the value of having an experienced guide. A mountain guide helps the climber make hundreds of difficult decisions about training, technique, preparation, gear, weather, route and various judgment calls along the way to the summit. For the newly-rich in mainland China the challenges of becoming a philanthropist are no less daunting than peering up at a mountain for the first time after resolving to conquer it. Emerging philanthropists in China – a population that...

EXPERT INSIGHTS 2020

Lihong Zhou, the General Manager of the Luxembourg branch of Bank of China Limited, commented: "The successful launch of this Schengen bond is a further step towards the internationalization of the Renminbi, and shows the commitment of Bank of China to promote Luxembourg as a leading RMB financial center in Europe. Photo By: Bank Of China By Courtesy of Lowtax.net On May 8, Bank of China, one of the big four state-owned Chinese commercial banks, successfully launched the offshore renminbi (RMB) 'Schengen bond' the first of its kind to be issued by a company from the Chinese Mainland and listed...

EXPERT INSIGHTS 2020