Estate & Succession Practitioner (ESP)
Sharing with Elite Legacy
This interview was taken as an excerpt from 28th issue of “The Custodian”.
Bringing smiles to the faces of clients, and a good night’s sleep
Joseph Tan and Chong Shing Ann of Precepts Group share their experiences and what motivates them as ESPs, in this Q & A with The Custodian.
When did you become a Precepts Estate & Succession Practitioner (ESP)?
We both became Precepts ESPs when we decided to make a career switch and join the field of financial advisory. Shing Ann obtained the qualification in 2016. Joseph joined four years later.
What prompted you to consider a career and business as a Precepts ESP? Why did you choose Estate Planning?
Initially, we chose estate planning to provide better value to our clientele and differentiate ourselves — more of consultative advisory approach — instead of being just another financial advisor you meet on the street. Later, as we served more clients, we became even more convinced that estate planning is an essential element for comprehensive financial planning. Especially for working professionals who are also parents of young children (like ourselves), as well as self-made business owners who don’t have much of a backup plan except for themselves.
What difference did Precepts make in your journey?
Precepts is committed to empower and equip its ESPs with practical and up-to-date knowledge. It has regular in-house training sessions to help new ESPs starting their estate planning journey. For senior ESPs, Precepts also constantly organizes educational sharing sessions where they invite expert speakers from various industries to give views or update regulations related to estate planning. The latest session on inheritance planning for UK assets was especially useful for our clients.
What are some of your core beliefs for Estate Planning?
That is best represented by our signature quote: “Estate planning is never about merely leaving something when one is not around. It is about making certain of your wishes and protecting what is important for people you care about, and as long as they are around.”
What do you think clients should look out for when they are doing their estate planning to distribute their wealth?
Nowadays, more clients are savvier about investing and leveraging their wealth across multiple asset types, such as private properties, crypto assets, US shares, collective investment schemes, overseas assets, private company shares, etc. Instead of opting for a simple Will, which merely indicates a percentage for all beneficiaries, consider engaging a competent advisor who is well versed with your asset classes. This could potentially save you a significant amount from estate leakage – for example, ABSD liability when an adult child needs to buy his own matrimonial home but is unable to sell his partial share of inherited property; or BSDs on transferring an inherited HDB share to siblings due to his own HDB MOP restrictions.
We understand you regularly help individuals and families set up Trusts. What is the biggest challenge you face when you talk to them?
The biggest challenge lies in understanding our clients’ potential estate leakage. Many of our clients own more than one investment asset (e.g. second residential properties, investment holding companies that own commercial/industrial properties, businesses with joint partners, etc.) with multiple mortgage loans on top of their cash positions, CPF monies and matrimonial homes.
What are some of the principles you use to help them overcome these challenges?
Think of the assets we just mentioned above as water flowing out from a pipeline. With a Precepts Trusts, they can have a solid structure that:
- Holds the water (assets that include properties, business CPF and insurance policies.)
- Controls how fast or slow it flows (distribution)
- Protects it from loved ones’ divorce, bankruptcy or litigation claims (preservation).
How long is the normal process to complete a family wealth succession?
Typically, it takes about four to five meetings spanning over two months, depending on our clients’ schedules and availability
What do you enjoy most about the business?
Clients’ trust! Not only do clients need to be absolutely comfortable and honest with us about their assets and liabilities, but also their relationships with their spouses, family members and business partners. Many of our trust clients have also become our good friends, and they will usually seek our opinion before making any new asset acquisitions. Some clients who were initially hesitant in our financial planning discussions, became more open and subsequently adopted our recommendations for optimising their insurance portfolios.
Tell us more about what motivates you in this business?
The big wide smiles of clients after signing their Will and Trust documents! To some, it is a huge load off their shoulders and they really enjoy a better sleep in the night.
What do your colleagues and/or family members think about you being an Estate Planner?
Some of them actually thought we are the one who write the Wills, and act as executor/trustee for our clients!
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