PROJECT ENGAGEMENT
Researcher & Writer
PreceptsGroup Succession and Trusts in Wealth Management | PreceptsGroup International
Employing Entity
PreceptsGroup International Pte. Ltd.
Location
Remote, with regular working sessions at our Tanjong Pagar office
Engagement Type
Fixed-term project engagement, 3 months. Not an employment position.
Fee
Fixed project fee, based on experience and the agreed scope, paid against the milestones below.
Duration
Three months from commencement. Start date by agreement.
How to Apply
Send your CV, two writing samples, and a short note on how you would approach a revision of this kind to hr@preceptsgroup.com with the subject line: “Application: Researcher & Writer, 5th Edition”.
Shortlisted candidates will be asked to complete a short paid sample: a gap analysis of one nominated chapter of the 4th edition, against a copy we provide. We pay for this because it takes real work, and because it tells us more than an interview will.
PreceptsGroup is an equal opportunity employer. We select on merit, skills and experience.
The Engagement
PreceptsGroup Succession and Trusts in Wealth Management is the standard Singapore reference on estate planning, wills, trusts and succession, written by our Chairman, Chiwi Lee, for financial services professionals and estate planners. It has run through four editions since 2005. The 4th edition added digital assets, variable capital companies and family offices; several years on, we are preparing the 5th.
This engagement is to research what has changed since the 4th edition, update and rewrite the manuscript accordingly, and hand back a clean, edited, publication-ready text within three months.
This is not ghostwriting from scratch and it is not proofreading. You will be working with an established manuscript and an established author voice — a barrister and advocate of nearly forty years’ standing — and your job is to bring the content up to date without losing what has made the book work through four editions.
The book is a professional reference. Practitioners rely on it when advising real families about real money, and several of its chapters underpin our AEPP® course material. Accuracy is not a matter of house style here.
Where the 5th Edition Will Need Work
Indicative, not exhaustive. Confirming and extending this list is the first deliverable of the engagement.
- Legislative and regulatory change since the 4th edition, across succession, probate, trusts, mental capacity and the regulation of trust companies.
- Family offices and the single family office tax incentive regimes, which have moved substantially since the last edition.
- Variable capital companies — how the structure is actually being used in practice now, rather than how it was expected to be used.
- Digital assets: cryptocurrency, online accounts and digital estates, including how platforms now handle access on death.
- CRS, FATCA and beneficial ownership reporting as they affect trust structures.
- Muslim estates and inheritance, and any developments in the applicable practice.
- Every figure, threshold, fee, court practice direction and statutory reference in the book.
- Case studies and worked examples, which date faster than the law does.
Scope of Work
1. Research and gap analysis
- Review the current edition in full and produce a chapter-by-chapter gap analysis identifying what is outdated, superseded, incorrect or missing.
- Research legislative, regulatory and market developments since the last edition, working from primary sources — statutes, regulator publications, court decisions and official statistics rather than secondary commentary.
- Identify material that should be cut, and new material the edition needs in order to stay current.
- Verify every factual claim, figure, citation and statutory reference carried over from the previous edition. Nothing is assumed still correct because it was correct before.
2. Updating and rewriting
- Rewrite and update chapters against the agreed gap analysis, in the author’s established voice.
- Draft new sections or chapters where the edition requires them.
- Update all examples, case studies, figures and worked scenarios so they reflect current rules and current amounts.
- Rework tables, checklists and diagrams, and flag any that need redesign.
3. Editing and quality control
- Structural edit: sequence, chapter balance, signposting and repetition across the whole manuscript.
- Line edit and copy-edit for clarity, consistency and readability by a general reader.
- Apply a single style throughout — terminology, capitalisation, citation format, number and date conventions.
- Maintain a source log for every substantive claim, so that facts can be re-verified at proofing and again at the next edition.
4. Handover
- Deliver a clean, publication-ready manuscript in Microsoft Word, with tracked changes and a clean copy.
- Deliver the source log, the gap analysis, and a short list of items that will need attention in the next edition.
- Provide one round of post-delivery response to editorial and proofreading queries within four weeks of handover.
Milestones and Payment
Payment is tied to delivery rather than to time spent. Each milestone is signed off before the next begins.
|
Milestone
|
Deliverable
|
By
|
Fee
|
|---|---|---|---|
|
1. Gap analysis
|
Chapter-by-chapter analysis and an
agreed revision plan |
End week 3
|
20%
|
|
2. First half draft
|
Revised manuscript, first half, with
source log |
End week 7
|
30%
|
|
3. Full revised draft
|
Complete revised manuscript, all
chapters |
End week 11
|
30%
|
|
4. Final handover
|
Edited, publication-ready manuscript
and all supporting material |
End week 13
|
20%
|
What You Will Need
Essential
- Demonstrable experience updating, editing or substantially revising long-form non-fiction — a book, a manual, a professional handbook or an equivalent.
- Strong research discipline, and the habit of working from primary sources and citing them.
- Ability to write in someone else’s voice rather than your own.
- Editorial judgement about what to cut, not only what to add.
- Able to explain technical or legal material to a general reader without losing accuracy.
- Able to work independently to a fixed deadline with limited supervision.
- A portfolio or writing samples. We will ask for these.
Advantageous
- Working knowledge of Singapore law, or demonstrable ability to research it accurately from primary sources. A law degree is not required; the discipline to read a statute correctly is.
- Familiarity with estate planning, trusts, succession, tax or personal finance.
- Experience working with a publisher, or taking a manuscript through to print.
- Journalism, legal publishing, technical writing or academic research background.
- Experience updating a professional or legal reference work through successive editions.
How You Work
- Meticulous about accuracy. In this subject a wrong figure or a superseded rule is not a typo — it is advice someone may act on.
- Comfortable being edited, and comfortable defending a choice when you think it is right.
- Organised enough to track sources as you go rather than reconstructing them at the end.
- Realistic about scope. Three months is enough for a good revision and not enough for a rewrite.
What We Provide
- The current edition, the manuscript files, and any existing style guide or house conventions.
- Access to our trust, estate administration and legal teams for technical review, and to our practitioner network for practical examples.
- Direct access to the author for voice, structure and editorial decisions.
- A named editorial contact for decisions, so you are not waiting on a committee.
- Reasonable research costs, such as database access or publications, reimbursed on prior approval.
Terms
- Fixed-term project engagement for 3 months. This is a contract for services, not employment, and carries no employee benefits.
- Copyright and all intellectual property in the work produced vest in PreceptsGroup International Pte. Ltd. The book remains authored by Chiwi Lee. To be set out in the engagement letter.
- This is an uncredited engagement. The book remains authored by Chiwi Lee, and any acknowledgement is at the firm’s discretion.
- Confidentiality and non-disclosure apply to the manuscript and to any firm material accessed during the engagement.
- Extension beyond 3 months, if required, by written agreement and a separate fee.
