Kevin Lee
Latest Review
Kevin is always responsive and is able to immediate identify the main issues to be resolved in providing sound and practical legal and Canadian tax advice. With Kevin's strong technical background in trust law and Canadian tax, and his ability to align appropriate members of his firm to assist us with our clients matters, he is my first point of contact in Hong Kong for Canadian tax and Hong Kong and PRC legal support (including Hong Kong and Canadian WILLs, Hong Kong Enduring Power of Attorney and private family trust matters).
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Kevin is always responsive and is able to immediate identify the main issues to be resolved in providing sound and practical legal and Canadian tax advice. With Kevin's strong technical background in trust law and Canadian tax, and his ability to align appropriate members of his firm to assist us with our clients matters, he is my first point of contact in Hong Kong for Canadian tax and Hong Kong and PRC legal support (including Hong Kong and Canadian WILLs, Hong Kong Enduring Power of Attorney and private family trust matters).
Case Studies
Advice on group structuring
Advising entrepreneurial founders on the restructuring of large corporate groups into family trusts, often involving review and drafting of special voting and income distribution mechanisms which may need to be hard-coded into the constitutional documents. The exercise of control over the disposition of group assets may be done in accordance with a governance protocol at the trust level with aligned provisions in corporate articles tailored to not interfere with normal business. These projects require familiarity and expertise with trusts and Hong Kong corporate law as well as close collaboration with offshore counsel.
Advising Family Offices
Advising single family offices with respect to the founders’ post-IPO family trusts and regulatory compliance. We regularly advise family offices on the implications of the proposed transfer of post-IPO listed company shares to a new family trust under Hong Kong securities legislation and listing rules. The transfer may raise questions of whether there is a change of the control group, whether certain disclosures are mandatory or merely voluntary, and also touches on aggregation rules which affect trustees’ duties on reporting. We often need to seek “whitewash waivers” from mandatory general offer rules under the Takeovers Code for the transfer to the new trust, as well as secure stamp duty exemption relief on the transfer.