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".

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.