The demand in China for wealth management services, in particular the creation of charitable and family trusts, continues to rocket, as Chinese families want the best possible advice when planning their assets across generations. 

Following recent announcements to further develop the trust law in China, the Chinese Trust Registration (CTR) – China’s nationwide registration and statistics, trust product issuance and trading,  and regulatory and service platform – reportedthat ‘the scale of new family trusts set up in January was nearly RMB13 billion (c.a. GBP1.4 billion), an increase of 33.54% over the previous month, a new high in the past year.’

As demand increases, so do expectations. Chinese families demand excellent advice, and financial institutions and advisors want to learn from well established markets to continue to advance their practice.

Last year we opened our first STEP branch in China, as our global community of 22,000 professionals continues to grow. 

This month we held a landmark event with Shanghai Lujiazui Financial City (LFC) to celebrate the thriving financial centre of Shanghai and sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to support the ongoing growth of trusts in China.

The event attracted hundreds of trust and estate practitioners from across the world and top global financial institutions based in Shanghai Lujiazui Financial City, and gained considerable coverage across in Chinese business media. The MoU was signed by Jun Liu, Chair of LFC Council and President of Bank of Communications and STEP’s CEO Mark Walley. It signals the start of a new relationship and commitment to support the growing and complex needs of Chinese families.

We very much look forward to working together with the LFC Council to continually raise professional standards, connect China with the global developments in trusts and estates and support advisors in China to advance education and practice.