Legacy Planning

There's no need to avoid the topic— legacy planning is not just a matter for arrangement upon demise; it also involves arrangements during one's lifetime.

Legacy planning is a crucial part of future planning of the entire family.

• By planning early and properly, your assets could be distributed according to your wishes, whether you are of sound mind, in a coma, or even after your unfortunately passing. This helps maintain family harmony and potentially reduces disputes over inheritance.
• Additionally, you can set aside some amounts as a reserve to deal with unexpected events that may happen to you such as accidents and illnesses. This can help ease the financial burden on your descendants and reduce the impact on the assets you wish to pass on to future generations.

Insurance plan is one of the flexible options for legacy planning.

Advance legacy planning can help ensure that your wealth is distributed to your descendants according to your wishes, such as passing it on to your children and grandchildren.

Different legacy planning tools have different functions and costs^**. Generally speaking:

• The establishment and management costs of a trust are relatively higher; or
• Setting up a will is less costly and simpler, but the validity of a will can potentially be challenged and may lead to conflicts among family members. 

You may also consider flexible legacy planning solutions, such as insurance plans.

• Generally, if a policy has designated beneficiaries and all due premiums have been paid, the beneficiaries can directly claim the benefits under the policy after the life insured unfortunately passes away. Since the insurance claim process is independent of the estate administration process, generally, beneficiaries can receive the insurance payout without being subject to the relatively cumbersome probate procedures^#.
• Additionally, some insurance plans available in the market offer legacy planning services, allowing you to manage and flexibly create a personalized legacy plan.
  

Before starting your own legacy planning, you may need to seek for professional advices from tax, legal, and insurance consultants as needed^*.

For more general information, you can click here to view the “Report on Legacy Planning and Insurance Solutions for High-net-worth Individuals in Greater China“ jointly published by Manulife and Deloitte (Currently available in Traditional Chinese version only).

Legacy planning is not exclusive to the wealthy.

Even if we don't have property or a family business, we may still have insurance policies, bank deposits, investment portfolios, etc. These personal assets can be passed on to other family members, the next generation, or even charitable institutions^{^^}.

Legacy planning is not too distant…

It can include pre-planning for asset arrangements in unexpected situations. Life is unpredictable, and if you unfortunately pass away without making advance arrangements, who will receive, administer, and distribute your wealth?

Without making a will in your legacy planning, your assets and property will be shared out according to the Intestates' Estates Ordinance. A statutory order of priority is applied to those who are entitled to inherit your assets or property. In other words, the distribution may not be in line with your preferences^##.

Additionally, if you start planning early, you can also make good use of financial planning tools, such as savings insurance, to leverage the long-term growth potential of your wealth over time.

Legacy planning is not just for the next generation.

Some insurance plans give you the right to designate specific beneficiaries to whom you wish to transfer your wealth, including:

• Not only parent, spouse, child, and sibling,
• But also grandparent, grandchild, niece, nephew, aunt, uncle, cousin, etc., and even charitable institutions^{^^}.