Sunday, June 05, 2005

Trust: A Shield For Family's Financial Certainty

If business is what you intend to do one day, then, set up a Trust to shield your family away from your business risks. You will have to do it now because it will be too late when your family needs its protection.

You may have heard that Trust is a better alternative for Will. It protects the beneficiary from foolishly spending away huge inheritance. But I guess you have never heard that Trust is an instrument to provide financial certainty that shield your family away from your business risks. Create a Trust and transfer the title of your house and stocks for your children's education into the Trust. Appoint yourself and your wife as Trustee. The beneficiaries are your wife, your children and you. Legally you have given away your assets to the Trust. You are no longer the legal owner of the assets. You and your wife hold the legal title of the assets as trustees, not owners. If you, the trustee, become bankrupt, these assets under Trust will not be subjected to claims by your creditors! You have shielded your family's financial certainty away from the risks your take as a businessman. There will be a roof on top of your family, there will be sufficient funds for your children’s food and education no matter how financially ruined you are.

As a businessman there will be times when you need to grow your business beyond your current means or to hold on through a difficult period. You may have to take up credits either in the form of goods, services or loans from banks. Even if you run a limited corporation, banks will ensure that you give personal guarantee and therefore are personally liable to the loans you take. Without a Trust, when your business does not turn out to be as you wish, your family financial security and financial certainty is subjected to creditors and banks' claims. With Trust, the banks and other creditors will not be able to lay their hands on the assets that you have, long ago, transferred to the Trust.

Part 1: Trust, a shield for family's financial certainty
Part 2: Trust, a shield for financial certainty (2)
Part 3: Setting up a trust

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Chen Tong, are u from sea park school? From: an old friend, Bond

Anonymous said...

What you say about using a trust instrument to protect your wealth is true and it not only applies to business people. As your wealth increases, you may want to protect yourself from being sued which is getting more common these days, and to have a say in how your money will be used when you are no longer around.

Anonymous said...

I read here about Wills http://writingawill.wordpress.com/

how does that work in conjuction with trust?