Carey Olsen Singapore LLP

Corporate; Family Office; Investment Funds; Private Client; Taxation and Economic Substance; Trusts and Private Wealth

Rachel TEP is counsel based in Singapore and leads the firm's trusts and private wealth practice in Asia. She is the only native Chinese Mandarin speaking trusts and private wealth lawyer based in Singapore who specialises in offshore law.

Rachel has particular experience advising high net worth individuals and ultra-high net worth individuals from the Asia-Pacific region, many of whom are ranked on the Forbes World's Billionaires List and the Hurun China Rich List (which ranks China's wealthiest people with a minimum net worth of 5 billion yuan (US$690m)). Rachel advises these clients on family wealth preservation, global asset allocation and the establishment and restructuring of a wide range of trust structures including private family trusts and employee benefit trusts and philanthropic, and charitable structures and foundations. On a day-to-day basis, Rachel plans and sets up new trust structures, drafts trust documents and related instruments, and offers guidance on the ongoing management and restructuring of complex trusts for her clients. Her clients range from wealthy individuals and families, professional trustees, single family offices and multi-family offices, wealth management companies to private banks.

In addition to her specialisation in trusts and private wealth matters, Rachel also has a broad range of experience in corporate and commercial transactions, including cross-border mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, foreign direct investment-related general corporate law. She advises international companies from a wide range of industries on their legal matters and business transactions worldwide.

Rachel has most recently led Taylor Wessing's international private wealth team in Greater China before taking up her position at Carey Olsen. While at Taylor Wessing, Rachel led her team to win the China Business Law Awards for Family Wealth Management in 2020 and 2021. Before her appointment at Taylor Wessing, Rachel worked for the Financial Times in its London headquarter and also practiced at a large regional London law firm where she gained extensive experience in corporate and commercial transactions.

Rachel is admitted as a solicitor in England and Wales, the Chinese Bar, the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court (British Virgin Islands) and registered as a Bermuda practitioner.

Rachel has a LLB degree from Zhejiang University in China and a LLM degree from University College London. She also completed the Common Professional Examination (CPE) course at City University London and Legal Practice Course (LPC) at the College of Law in London.

Rachel is a native speaker of Mandarin, fluent in English and proficient in Cantonese.

Rachel is Full TEP Member of The Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP). As a testament to her reputation as a trust and private wealth expert in the region, Rachel has been invited for two consecutive years to be part of the expert judging panel for the WealthBriefing Asia awards in 2024 and 2025.