From the perspective of wealth management, family trust and family office are mature and common financial management schemes in overseas markets. For domestic entrepreneurs and rich people whose wealth has accumulated to a certain extent, these methods are also worth learning. In fact, in recent years, some private banking departments and trust companies have started to enter this field in China's wealth management market.

Family Trust: Building a Sustainable Family Inheritance

From the functional point of view, family trust has many advantages, and the most important and common functions are as follows: 1. Asset protection). Inheritance planning III. Tax planning. Privacy and confidentiality.

Under normal circumstances, a trust can manage all kinds of entrusted assets and make various forms of investment by formulating a trust contract according to the distribution rules specified in the client's will. The main advantage of family trust holding companies is that they can effectively concentrate their shares and help family descendants maintain the special assets of families and enterprises, which can be called an important mechanism to protect family intangible assets. Trust funds play a very important role in the inheritance of family businesses and wealth, especially when the heirs are young or temporarily unable to execute.

However, family trust is not a perfect equity design. Although it is beneficial to effectively concentrate equity and appropriately reduce inheritance tax, once it is improperly designed, it may lead to greater disputes among family members. The founder of Sino-Hong Kong Sun Hung Kai Properties set up a trust fund, hoping that the three sons would advance and retreat together, so the stipulated shares could not be sold to a third party other than members of the Guo family. But later, the three brothers had a dispute over the control of the family business, but they could not solve it through separation, so they had to go to court until Guo Mu came forward to stop the settlement, and the century-old equity dispute came to an end temporarily. Therefore, the formulation of family trust terms needs to be considered in many aspects and more professional and rigorous.

At present, there are several common family trust models, including testamentary trust, insurance trust, voting trust and offshore trust. They have their own advantages and are also suitable for customers with different needs.

1. testamentary trust. Testamentary trust refers to the management, distribution, use and payment of the estate after the client delivers the pre-drawn property inheritance plan to the trust by making a will in advance. After the will comes into effect, the trust property is transferred to the trustee, and the trustee manages and disposes of the trust property according to the contents of the trust. Testamentary trust mainly solves the problem of how to manage and dispose of the client's property after his death. The difference from general inheritance is that it uses the trustee to realize the maintenance of the family status and the preservation and appreciation of the property by the client, and even uses the control of the property to achieve the purpose of controlling future generations.

Second, the insurance trust. Insurance trust is a financial trust service product which combines insurance and trust. Insurance payment is trust property. The applicant (that is, the client) signs an insurance premium trust contract with the trust company. When the insured dies, the insurance company pays the insurance premium to the trustee (that is, the trust company), and the trustee manages and uses it according to the trust contract, and distributes the trust property to the beneficiaries according to the trust contract.

3. Voting trust. Voting trust refers to a legal system in which shareholders irrevocably transfer their voting rights or rights related to shares to another trustee, shareholders or persons designated by shareholders for a certain period of time. Through voting trust, family members can continue to own the control rights of their enterprises in the process of family fortune's inheritance, and at the same time transfer the management rights and decision-making rights to the outside, gain external key financial capital and human capital, and share the benefits of control rights. The essence of voting trust lies in the concentration and competition of corporate control. In the inheritance of family fortune, the controlling shareholder can use the voting trust flexibly in various ways to control the family business.

4. Offshore trust. Offshore trust refers to the trust established in offshore areas. Because different regions have relatively loose or special policies on the definition or legal provisions of trust, the interests of beneficiaries can be more protected; Offshore trusts are usually established in jurisdictions other than the place where the property grantor is registered. At the same time, because tax havens can give more preferential treatment to beneficiaries, most offshore trusts are set up in tax havens.

Family office: the wealth steward of the family

Renaissance Italy was regarded as the pioneer of modern family office, when wealthy businessmen tried to manage their wealth. When some Swiss private banks first developed in the 18 and 19 centuries, their models were similar to those of family offices. Until the19th century, the arrival of the industrial revolution created many huge wealth empires, and the modern family office model really matured in the United States.

According to the research of Wharton Business School, the family office plays a very important role in managing the family investment portfolio, guiding its charitable activities and maintaining and increasing the value of family fortune. Especially after the financial crisis, more and more wealthy families no longer choose to be served by large global banks, but turn to seek the assistance of family finance offices. This shows that tailored asset management plans seem to be more attractive to high-net-worth families.

At present, there are about 65,438+0,000 single-family offices in operation around the world, serving wealthy families with assets of not less than $6,543.8+0 billion. More than half of the single family financial offices provide financial services to families with wealth exceeding $654.38 billion. Rockefeller, Carnegie, DuPont and other families all have their own family offices.

At present, many family offices, trust companies and third-party wealth management institutions have begun to actively combine professional investment management. The legal services and tax planning team provides Chinese-style family office related services to high-net-worth clients in the form of multi-family offices. At present, there are about 40-50 family offices, but there are as many as 2,500-3,000 single family offices in the United States, which are quite proficient in family office business and manage about 65,438+. At present, 747 of the 2,470 A-share listed companies in China are family businesses, but only 75 of them have been handed over to the second generation, so there is still great potential and space for development.