It is well known that offshore companies are widely used in China with Hong Kong, BVI and Cayman companies being the most common. Such structuring is of great benefit particularly in relation to outbound investment. As time moves on, entrepreneurs and investors are giving increasing attention to matters of estate planning to ensure that the fruit of their labours can be passed to the next generation as efficiently as possible, and ideally in such a way that assets do not need to be broken up or sold in order to settle inheritance tax bills.

The year 2015 has witnessed the rapid expansion of the Chinese family office industry, as indicated by the booming growth of professional institutions that provide services for Chinese families (enterprises) represented by local family offices.  Various family offices’ understanding of the family, industry and approach to service have similarities but differs in many ways, too. Our team has been studying the myriad challenges facing the family (enterprise), and exploring the best approach that integrates overseas family offices’ approach with the Chinese practice.We will share our insights with readers in this article. 

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.

1. I. Advantages of Private Foundations

Compared with trusts, private foundations have the following advantages in terms of family wealth management:

• Perpetual Existence

Traditionally, the perpetual existence of trusts is forbidden in British trust law. Upon maturity, trust assets should either be distributed or transferred to another trust.

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".