Especially within Asia, the subject of death remains a taboo subject. Industry leaders spoke about some of the effective cases for discussing the sensitive matter of succession planning.
Within succession planning, there are a number of solutions that are readily available to support the transfer of wealth, businesses and other assets. However, the challenge in Asia is the difficulty of discussing what remains to be a taboo subject. According to Lok Yim, HSBC’s APAC regional head of global private banking, this requires a focus on softer aspects, like communications, which he calls «software».
«We have the hardware such as family offices or certain banking products that help families sell their business or diversify a business through a trust,» Yim said at the «Wealth Management Summit» organized by FT LIVE and PWM last week. «But I think in this increasingly complex world, it is the software that has become more important.»
Liquidity Focus
One such method is to place an emphasis on liquidity rather than death itself. From this perspective, life insurance is a «very effective tool» to initiate the topic of succession planning.
«Life insurance is the only wealth planning tool that can create liquidity,» sad Cherie Tan, CEO of Utmost International Isle of Man's Singapore branch. «It helps to normalize the whole conversation and move away from the topic of death so people can approach it in a more relaxed manner.»
