In a previous article I wrote about the need to plan against
inheritance taxes. One way of doing this is to transfer assets into
trust. Once there the assets no longer belong to you, they belong
to the trustees, so generally would not attract any tax charge on
your death because the legal owner doesn't change. And if you
get into financial problems they are better protected and may still
be enjoyed by your family rather than being swept up by your
creditors.
An additional advantage is that on your death the need for a
probate-the process which allows the assets to be released to your
family - is avoided. A grant of probate takes time to obtain. Even
if your estate is as straight forward as possible it is highly
unlikely that a grant of probate in Hong Kong will be obtained in
under 9 months. The typical estate of an Hong Kong investor
comprised of a variety of different assets in a number of different
countries would normally take at least 2 years to wind up and
