Sun Life Convenes Roundtable Forum on the Changing Needs and Opportunities of High-Net-Worth Clients

On 25 April 2024, Sun Life Hong Kong held a roundtable forum titled "Discussion on the changing needs and opportunities of high-net-worth clients" at The Ritz-Carlton, Hong Kong. The event provided financial advisors with insights into the challenges faced by family offices' high-net-worth clients and the professional added-value services they need in today's rapidly evolving and uncertain economic environment.

The forum also introduced Sun Life’s new high-net-worth strategic strategy to its products and added value services in response to current needs, as well as various professional development courses, workshops and exchange sessions arranged for financial advisors. These initiatives aim to enhance their professional knowledge and capabilities, enabling them to seize market opportunities of the times, meet the demands of high-net-worth clients, and provide them with the most appropriate services.

Sun Life invited several prominent professionals to participate in the roundtable forum, including Mr Chak Man Lai, Raymond (Founder and Managing Partner of Chak & Associates LLP), Mr Lee Man Ko, Travis (Tax Partner of KPMG), Mr Tsui Wing Keung, Danny (Executive Director of Vistra (Tricor)), Ms Christine Yeung (General Manager, Life and Health of Sun Life).

Mr Chak Man Lai, Raymond, Founder and Managing Partner of Chak & Associates LLP, has extensive experience in handling cross-border arbitration cases, corporate governance advice, contract risk management, enduring powers of attorney, wills and estate litigation. By sharing case studies of high-net-worth clients of family offices, he pointed out that in recent years, many clients have asked lawyers to help them restructure their risk management and legacy arrangements, including reviewing the details of their living assets arrangements, Enduring Power of Attorney (EPOA) and wills, to ensure that they can continue to use their assets to receive proper care in the event of health problems or other incidents and that their estates can be properly distributed, thereby avoiding future litigation.

Another speaker, Mr Lee Man Ko, Travis, Tax Partner of KPMG, also serves as the Convenor of the China Tax Committee of the Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants. He often provides assessments and advice on global family wealth inheritance planning and tax residency for entrepreneurs. Mr Lee is also very familiar with cross-border tax issues for businesses using Hong Kong as an investment platform and assists in designing suitable financing solutions. At the forum, he pointed out that for high-net-worth clients of family offices or large-scale family businesses, it is necessary to carry out global family wealth inheritance planning properly. During the process, it is crucial to consider different economic environments and tax regulations around the world, and the development goals and directions of family descendants, as well as to combine trusts, funds or insurance products with different needs to achieve comprehensive and balanced risk management, cost control and wealth appreciation, and to ensure that wealth can be properly passed on to the next generation of successors. The Capital Investment Entrant Scheme (CIES) 2.0 and the family office tax concession policy recently announced by the Hong Kong government can attract high-net-worth individuals in Asia to bring their funds into Hong Kong. With Hong Kong's sophisticated wealth management, access to quality talents, and supporting measures, it will certainly be able to provide more comprehensive and targeted services to high-net-worth clients.

In addition, Mr Tsui Wing Keung, Danny, Executive Director of Vistra (Tricor), pointed out that since 2013, all trusts in Hong Kong have been perpetual and of indefinite duration, which is different from the previous 80-year validity period. This gives Hong Kong an advantage over other countries or regions and enables it to truly cooperate with family offices or high-net-worth clients to carry out inheritance plans and ensure that assets can be effectively passed on or distributed to future generations. Therefore, establishing a family trust in Hong Kong, combined with Hong Kong's other high-quality financial supporting services, is more advantageous and attractive than doing so in other places.

Ms Christine Yeung, General Manager, Life and Health of Sun Life Hong Kong, brought up that in the current environment of asset diversification and globalization, establishing a comprehensive family legacy planning is crucial for family inheritance. It is necessary to plan early and carry out proper risk management in order to ensure that wealth can be passed on for two or three generations, so that the philosophy and property of the entire family can be sustained. The above three experts also mentioned that many high-net-worth clients of family offices use high-value insurance policies in conjunction with trusts to achieve complementary functions. Especially after the pandemic, people pay special attention to guaranteed capital preservation and risk management. Among all investment tools, only insurance policies have guaranteed cash value. Therefore, many experts from different fields recommend that high-net-worth clients include high-value insurance policies in their trust portfolios to balance risk management and ensure sustainable inheritance.

In response to changing market demands and in line with government policy trends, Sun Life has also developed a "High-Net-Worth Client Added-Value Service ECO System" with two main objectives: (1) to comprehensively enhance the attractiveness to high-net-worth clients; and (2) to effectively increase the competitiveness of financial planning advisors, so as to assist clients in preserving assets, pass on wealth and securing health.

The ECO System consists of three parts, known as "Health, Strength, and Service Package":

"Health" refers to providing a comprehensive high-end medical network and health protection for clients' well-being, including high-quality one-stop medical services and supporting facilities, as well as a dedicated Greater Bay Area medical network, which can refer clients to major private hospitals in Hong Kong and renowned medical institutions in the Greater Bay Area for examination and treatment, and provide various appropriate support. In addition, the plan also covers assisting clients in planning for retirement and organizing a series of health talks for clients (including those with chronic diseases or who are caregivers at home) conducted by doctors or nutritionists, fully supporting clients to enjoy a healthy life.

"Strength" means establishing an inheritance academy to make every effort to enhance the capabilities of financial planning advisors. Sun Life has joined hands with HSUHK’s Institute of Continuing and Professional Education (ICAPE) to offer foundational, advanced, and professional family office training certificate programmes, the first of its kind in Hong Kong, for financial planning advisors. It also regularly invites different professional institutions, renowned fund companies, international entrepreneurs and local family businesses to conduct professional training courses on trusts, wills, enduring lasting powers of attorney, and tax regulations in various jurisdictions, as well as a variety of workshops, networking conferences and client seminars, to assist financial advisors in comprehensively enhancing their professional knowledge and capabilities, expanding their client and talent networks.

"Service Package" is to provide high-net-worth clients with a full range of exclusive high-asset added-value service referrals if client needs, to fully assist clients in effectively preserving, accumulating, appreciating and sustaining assets. In addition, Sun Life will also launch a "Corporate Keyman Insurance Policy" to ensure that individual enterprises can be compensated for potential losses in the event of an accident involving their core personnel, such as sole proprietors, partners, business partners/shareholders of SMEs, so that the business can continue to operate, meet family office needs.

Mr Chak, Mr Lee and Mr Tsui all expressed that Sun Life’s high-net-worth client ECO system is very forward-looking and can meet market demands in a systematic manner. They believe that it will be able to leverage Hong Kong's greatest advantages in line with the Hong Kong government's tax incentives for family offices and CIES 2.0.

Finally, Mr Clement Lam, Chief Executive Officer of Sun Life, pointed out that with 132 years of experience in Hong Kong, Sun Life has always been committed to providing excellent services to its clients, ensuring that the unique needs of each exceptional client can be met. He said that Sun Life established a high-net-worth service team 30 years ago to develop solutions and products for high-net-worth clients. Sun Life has strong underwriting capabilities and encourages financial planning advisors to actively participate in various related professional courses, obtain professional qualifications, and seize opportunities to attend seminars, workshops or networking conferences. They should strive to equip themselves, align with the company's expansion strategy, and continuously enhance value-added services for high-net-worth clients, so that clients and themselves can live a more brilliant life together.