it's your legacy... Entrustet HIWI Blog

One of our interns, Danya Mi,  did a bit of research into the estate planning market in her home country of China. Turns out estate planning really isn’t as common in China as it is here in the States. Danya’s research indicates two reasons for this:

1. Different legal systems and taxation policies between US and China. Under common law, estate planning can help reduce some cost during the process of property transfer, but the advantage is not as dramatic under China’s civil law system. China’s estate taxes are much lower than they are here in the U.S. Therefore, estate planning is a more pressing issue here in America.
2. Cultural differences. In China, people are somewhat unwilling to plan for their death due to the fact that people regard death as an unlucky thing to think about or discuss. Death isn’t really a happy topic for people anywhere, but it’s definitely tolerated more here in the States.

But even in China, there is good reason to plan for one’s estate.  There are cases in which family members have problems distributing properties because the
deceased persons left either no wills or wills in an improper legal format. The statistic from the Chinese Primary Court shows that nearly 90% of the inheritance disputes are caused by these circumstances. People start to realize that estate planning will become a strategy to avoid unnecessary conflict between heirs. In China, there are lawyers or firms doing estate planning at this moment, but it is not quite common for average families to make an estate plan unless significant money is at stake and/or family conflicts already exist.

Tags:

chinese estate planning · estate planning in china