In our marvelous world, you can cheat on your taxes, you can secretly stash the money away in some financial institution abroad, someone working there will steal your personal and account data, some government/tax authority will buy the stolen goods since righteousness (and revenue) trumps law, they will prosecute you and parade you in front of the media like a prized prisoner-of-war, what can you do?
Sue! If you're a tax cheat and your data is on the market like the HSBC Swiss Private Bank data that is being auctioned off, start building your lawsuit. Did they tell you about the stolen data? Did they tell you about the tax amnesty in your home country? etc......
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/02/08/business/AP-EU-Liechtenstein-Tax-Evasion.html
One German tax evader has successfully sued a LGT Bank subsidiary, their fiduciary/trust business, for failing to inform him that his data was stolen preventing him the chance to have declared himself to German authorities and avoided more severe fine for tax fraud.
Where's the honour among thieves I ask?
Monday, February 8, 2010
Friday, February 5, 2010
Back to the Drawing Board
A few years ago, a senior executive at a European bank with vested but not direct interest, asked me about possible candidates for a greenfield set up in Singapore. I threw out 2 names that I thought were competent and possibly good fits. A greenfield requires special talent and skills and market contacts. Trailblazers are a special breed. Most in Hong Kong and Singapore are followers. The educational system and pecking order in most organisations have trained them to react or follow.
Apparently they contacted one, ignored the other, but closed the deal with an in-house transfer from Europe. This person goes out and hires a marginal assistant to help with local languages. Together they set up shop. Several years of seeing red on the bottom line, they are re-organising. The first thing building and driving a greenfield business requires is: bridges, very strong bridges. People on an island usually die.
Speculation on my part but the lack of success (which may or may not be pure failure) of the incumbent lies in failing to build the right number of bridges, building them on the right spot, or building too flimsy of a bridge or letting a bridge burn down.
The number of bridges you need depend on the organisation. A bank trust company needs a bridge to the private bankers. Independent trustees need many bridges to business feeders like lawyers and accountants. Too few bridges and business will only trickle in.
The right spot for the bridge are those that the lead you to supporters, someone who will send business your way, be it in-house or external. Some of those bridges may be half way around the world. Some just down the hall. You could have a 100 bridges but if none lead you to a supporter, then those bridges are useless.
The bridge must be strong to withstand the forces of nature, which are greed, self-interest, self-preservation and self-promotion. Money, politics, fame and recognition factors stand to topple otherwise perfectly located bridges. Put too high of a toll on the bridge and people travel by other routes. Do not have express lanes and those impatient will travel other routes. Do you have incentives (referral fees, scorecard points, mirror accounts, retro-cessions, etc) for people to use your bridge? There is a old movie called Field of Dreams with Kevin Costner where the guy is told "If you build it, he will come". Well, you can build bridges but without a reason why, people will not come. Asians can be some of the most self-centered, self-serving people, I-not-we people in business. There are plenty of bankers that undermine their in-house trust (or other businesses) if it better serves them. Loyalty is often bought, not earned and definitely not given.
Certain bridges will be burnt down. This is usually Part II of building the business. If it wasn't abundantly clear, getting people on your island is the first goal, hence the need for bridges. Now that you've got them, how you deal with them determines whether they will ever come back. Screw up in front of a lawyer and his client and the bridge to that law firm may close permanently. Dispute fees with the Team Head for Indonesia and that bridge will close down. Allow too many on the bridge and the bridge collapses. Knowing which bridges are mission critical and which ones aren't is paramount. Allow too many burning bridges and you get cut off from the world.....again.
So to the lucky guy or gal stepping in: go back to the drawing board and start sketching and mapping out your bridges, inspect the ones you have, tear down or repair the ones you need, ask for resources to build the ones you don't have.
If all this was too abstract....just think SimCity.
Apparently they contacted one, ignored the other, but closed the deal with an in-house transfer from Europe. This person goes out and hires a marginal assistant to help with local languages. Together they set up shop. Several years of seeing red on the bottom line, they are re-organising. The first thing building and driving a greenfield business requires is: bridges, very strong bridges. People on an island usually die.
Speculation on my part but the lack of success (which may or may not be pure failure) of the incumbent lies in failing to build the right number of bridges, building them on the right spot, or building too flimsy of a bridge or letting a bridge burn down.
The number of bridges you need depend on the organisation. A bank trust company needs a bridge to the private bankers. Independent trustees need many bridges to business feeders like lawyers and accountants. Too few bridges and business will only trickle in.
The right spot for the bridge are those that the lead you to supporters, someone who will send business your way, be it in-house or external. Some of those bridges may be half way around the world. Some just down the hall. You could have a 100 bridges but if none lead you to a supporter, then those bridges are useless.
The bridge must be strong to withstand the forces of nature, which are greed, self-interest, self-preservation and self-promotion. Money, politics, fame and recognition factors stand to topple otherwise perfectly located bridges. Put too high of a toll on the bridge and people travel by other routes. Do not have express lanes and those impatient will travel other routes. Do you have incentives (referral fees, scorecard points, mirror accounts, retro-cessions, etc) for people to use your bridge? There is a old movie called Field of Dreams with Kevin Costner where the guy is told "If you build it, he will come". Well, you can build bridges but without a reason why, people will not come. Asians can be some of the most self-centered, self-serving people, I-not-we people in business. There are plenty of bankers that undermine their in-house trust (or other businesses) if it better serves them. Loyalty is often bought, not earned and definitely not given.
Certain bridges will be burnt down. This is usually Part II of building the business. If it wasn't abundantly clear, getting people on your island is the first goal, hence the need for bridges. Now that you've got them, how you deal with them determines whether they will ever come back. Screw up in front of a lawyer and his client and the bridge to that law firm may close permanently. Dispute fees with the Team Head for Indonesia and that bridge will close down. Allow too many on the bridge and the bridge collapses. Knowing which bridges are mission critical and which ones aren't is paramount. Allow too many burning bridges and you get cut off from the world.....again.
So to the lucky guy or gal stepping in: go back to the drawing board and start sketching and mapping out your bridges, inspect the ones you have, tear down or repair the ones you need, ask for resources to build the ones you don't have.
If all this was too abstract....just think SimCity.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
What We Really Do At Work........
SWF or NSWF that is the question. Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to fantasize about Victoria's Secret models or just scroll through her pictures on my computer......
Obviously Macquarie Bank in Sydney Australia has some IT policy issues to deal with now that this is making the news. http://www.smh.com.au/national/interest-in-assets-macquarie-worker-caught-ogling-pictures-of-miranda-kerr-live-on-tv-20100203-nbsi.html
Some "boob" is likely to lose his job over this one and make life that much more miserable for the rest of us who like to keep abreast of Page 3 girls at the start of each day.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1m8a4Jl4ZI Look over the interviewee's right shoulder about 1 minute in.
Obviously Macquarie Bank in Sydney Australia has some IT policy issues to deal with now that this is making the news. http://www.smh.com.au/national/interest-in-assets-macquarie-worker-caught-ogling-pictures-of-miranda-kerr-live-on-tv-20100203-nbsi.html
Some "boob" is likely to lose his job over this one and make life that much more miserable for the rest of us who like to keep abreast of Page 3 girls at the start of each day.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1m8a4Jl4ZI Look over the interviewee's right shoulder about 1 minute in.
If It Looks Like a Duck, Walks Like a Duck, Quacks like a Duck.......
It used to be that is was a duck. Nowadays, don't be so certain.
There was a time when a people in the trust industry were Trustees, Trust Officers/Managers, Trust Advisers, Fiduciary Services, etc.. Lawyers were Trust or Estates Counsel. Accountants were Tax & Trust, etc.......basically the words: "trust" or "fiduciary" appeared in the title somewhere.
Nowadays, the buzz word is: "Wealth". People in the trust business are now Wealth Planners, Wealth Relationship Managers, Wealth Management or anything that doesn't truly describe what they do. Has the word "trust" evolved into a negative? I guess so and many organisations avoid using it in describing roles or personnel in fear it invokes a negative reaction like "used car" or "insurance" salesman. The PC answer is of course, trust is just a part of our holistic wealth creation and protection strategies and we offer more than just trusts.
For job hunters, it means a lot more keywords to type in the search field and time interpreting what the hell the role is.
For recruiters it means a lot more remotely and marginally qualified applicants flooding your inbox. If you cast a wide enough net then you'll drag in flotsam and jetsam as well as your prized big fish. Then again, use the wrong bait and you end up with nothing.
Should you find a duck out of the flock of birds, you still need to discern which pond that duck came from. Read my blogs on the trust providers (lawyers, accountants & CoSecs, Bank and Independent trustees - yes, I'm still working on the 4th and 5th installments) to gain insight on what these people and organisations actually do.
God help you distinguish between one firms' O, SO, AH, DH, H, EH, AVP, VP, SVP, EVP, AD, D, SD, ED, MD or even EMD from another's AM, M or SM. I've seen people with 3-years experience get Senior Manager titles. I seen people with 6-years get Executive Director titles. I've seen people with 18-years experience carry a Senior Vice President title. These initials have as much meaning as their high school alegbra results. I'd ignore them if I were you, can't tell much about a book from its cover.
Candidates have the natural incentive to exaggerate (or even fib) about responsibilities, tasks, or duties. It's the job of the hiring manager to put those into context and relevance.
For instance, do you know which trust providers in Hong Kong or Singapore actually have their own onshore trust administration departments? Do you know which ones send everything to their Cayman or Jersey trust operations? Do you which ones subcontract out? Was your candidate really performing trust administration or was he/she merely a carrier pigeon sending files back and forth? Can a Wealth Planner ever become Head of Trust or manage a P+L if all they did was marketing? Can a Trust Administrator handle marketing and business development if there was a Wealth Planning group in that company that took all the leads in the pipeline? Where were the leads coming from? A gift horse from the private bank or laborious mining of the intermediaries? Does this lawyer really have years of PQE in private clients/trusts work or did he/she just happen to work on a few trust cases over the years? Will your candidate understand bespoked, customised solutions when his previous employer only had a 3 trust packages to market?
Fail to ask the right questions or get the answers wrong and you end up having roasted peking chicken or duck cacciatore. Usually costly, not necessarily fatal still not what you ordered. Could leave a bad taste in your mouth too. There are cases where it all works out, but more often then not, you're recruiting in a few months time, again.
Not all ducks are created equal. Not all duck ponds are the same.
Best of luck in this year's duck hunting season.
There was a time when a people in the trust industry were Trustees, Trust Officers/Managers, Trust Advisers, Fiduciary Services, etc.. Lawyers were Trust or Estates Counsel. Accountants were Tax & Trust, etc.......basically the words: "trust" or "fiduciary" appeared in the title somewhere.
Nowadays, the buzz word is: "Wealth". People in the trust business are now Wealth Planners, Wealth Relationship Managers, Wealth Management or anything that doesn't truly describe what they do. Has the word "trust" evolved into a negative? I guess so and many organisations avoid using it in describing roles or personnel in fear it invokes a negative reaction like "used car" or "insurance" salesman. The PC answer is of course, trust is just a part of our holistic wealth creation and protection strategies and we offer more than just trusts.
For job hunters, it means a lot more keywords to type in the search field and time interpreting what the hell the role is.
For recruiters it means a lot more remotely and marginally qualified applicants flooding your inbox. If you cast a wide enough net then you'll drag in flotsam and jetsam as well as your prized big fish. Then again, use the wrong bait and you end up with nothing.
Should you find a duck out of the flock of birds, you still need to discern which pond that duck came from. Read my blogs on the trust providers (lawyers, accountants & CoSecs, Bank and Independent trustees - yes, I'm still working on the 4th and 5th installments) to gain insight on what these people and organisations actually do.
God help you distinguish between one firms' O, SO, AH, DH, H, EH, AVP, VP, SVP, EVP, AD, D, SD, ED, MD or even EMD from another's AM, M or SM. I've seen people with 3-years experience get Senior Manager titles. I seen people with 6-years get Executive Director titles. I've seen people with 18-years experience carry a Senior Vice President title. These initials have as much meaning as their high school alegbra results. I'd ignore them if I were you, can't tell much about a book from its cover.
Candidates have the natural incentive to exaggerate (or even fib) about responsibilities, tasks, or duties. It's the job of the hiring manager to put those into context and relevance.
For instance, do you know which trust providers in Hong Kong or Singapore actually have their own onshore trust administration departments? Do you know which ones send everything to their Cayman or Jersey trust operations? Do you which ones subcontract out? Was your candidate really performing trust administration or was he/she merely a carrier pigeon sending files back and forth? Can a Wealth Planner ever become Head of Trust or manage a P+L if all they did was marketing? Can a Trust Administrator handle marketing and business development if there was a Wealth Planning group in that company that took all the leads in the pipeline? Where were the leads coming from? A gift horse from the private bank or laborious mining of the intermediaries? Does this lawyer really have years of PQE in private clients/trusts work or did he/she just happen to work on a few trust cases over the years? Will your candidate understand bespoked, customised solutions when his previous employer only had a 3 trust packages to market?
Fail to ask the right questions or get the answers wrong and you end up having roasted peking chicken or duck cacciatore. Usually costly, not necessarily fatal still not what you ordered. Could leave a bad taste in your mouth too. There are cases where it all works out, but more often then not, you're recruiting in a few months time, again.
Not all ducks are created equal. Not all duck ponds are the same.
Best of luck in this year's duck hunting season.
A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing
What can you say about this bank and its trust services?
Might as well hire a portfolio manager instead. Oh wait....you need to know credit processes too! That means you need to know how to leverage [technical jargon for saying we need to loan you money and make another 2% in financing charges on] the trust fund's "investable assets" in order to have more cash to purchase the bank's other "wealth management products".
I truly love the mandate: "You expand the client base with emphasis on portfolio growth and profitability." How far off can the new generation of trust marketing with guaranteed returns be? Be the first to market investment-linked personal trusts!
Care to wager if any one in the organisation has ever read a case or statute on Trustee Investments? Care to bet that they are more intimate with CAPM, MPT and EMH than say Nestle, Westminister, Cowan or Scargill.
Unfortunately, it will take some new and successful remainder/capital beneficiary lawsuit against a trustee in order to shake up the industry, otherwise it's a mad "maximize wealth" world, at least in the banking sector. Blame the P&S guys.
Here's the ad:
Trust Manager
Company: A Prominent International Consumer Bank
Exp.: 5 year(s)
Salary: Negotiable
Job Description
In this role, you solicit, develop, generate and manage full service relationships with clients with investable assets. You expand the client base with emphasis on portfolio growth and profitability. You follow up on client contacts and refer the sale of Wealth Management products and services including personal trust services, portfolio management, private banking, as well as other services available across the Company.
You provide advice, counsel and high level customer service to clients in relation to asset protection, wealth management, succession and retirement. You will take responsibilities to review existing clients’ portfolio, implement various structures such as unit trusts, private discretionary trusts and companies to maximize clients’ wealth and minimize tax. You will support standards for managing net portfolio in a manner that ensures compliance with banking regulations, policies and procedures, and policy requirements.
Job Requirements
Bachelor Degree in Finance from a reputable university, MBA, CFP, PFP a plus
Minimum 5 years hands-on experience in the offshore trust industry with experience and success in marketing trust and other offshore services to high net worth individuals.
Considerable knowledge of private banking products and services, including credit processes, trust and estates, investments, etc
Ability to understand personal and business financial statements, complex tax returns and understanding of credit structures
Strong verbal and written communication skills combined with proven sales, marketing and presentation experience
Proven problem solving, conflict resolution, time management, follow-up and decision making skills required
Fluent Cantonese and English language skills, both written and spoken. Mandarin definite advantage
Might as well hire a portfolio manager instead. Oh wait....you need to know credit processes too! That means you need to know how to leverage [technical jargon for saying we need to loan you money and make another 2% in financing charges on] the trust fund's "investable assets" in order to have more cash to purchase the bank's other "wealth management products".
I truly love the mandate: "You expand the client base with emphasis on portfolio growth and profitability." How far off can the new generation of trust marketing with guaranteed returns be? Be the first to market investment-linked personal trusts!
Care to wager if any one in the organisation has ever read a case or statute on Trustee Investments? Care to bet that they are more intimate with CAPM, MPT and EMH than say Nestle, Westminister, Cowan or Scargill.
Unfortunately, it will take some new and successful remainder/capital beneficiary lawsuit against a trustee in order to shake up the industry, otherwise it's a mad "maximize wealth" world, at least in the banking sector. Blame the P&S guys.
Here's the ad:
Trust Manager
Company: A Prominent International Consumer Bank
Exp.: 5 year(s)
Salary: Negotiable
Job Description
In this role, you solicit, develop, generate and manage full service relationships with clients with investable assets. You expand the client base with emphasis on portfolio growth and profitability. You follow up on client contacts and refer the sale of Wealth Management products and services including personal trust services, portfolio management, private banking, as well as other services available across the Company.
You provide advice, counsel and high level customer service to clients in relation to asset protection, wealth management, succession and retirement. You will take responsibilities to review existing clients’ portfolio, implement various structures such as unit trusts, private discretionary trusts and companies to maximize clients’ wealth and minimize tax. You will support standards for managing net portfolio in a manner that ensures compliance with banking regulations, policies and procedures, and policy requirements.
Job Requirements
Bachelor Degree in Finance from a reputable university, MBA, CFP, PFP a plus
Minimum 5 years hands-on experience in the offshore trust industry with experience and success in marketing trust and other offshore services to high net worth individuals.
Considerable knowledge of private banking products and services, including credit processes, trust and estates, investments, etc
Ability to understand personal and business financial statements, complex tax returns and understanding of credit structures
Strong verbal and written communication skills combined with proven sales, marketing and presentation experience
Proven problem solving, conflict resolution, time management, follow-up and decision making skills required
Fluent Cantonese and English language skills, both written and spoken. Mandarin definite advantage
Monday, February 1, 2010
Hey Tony Chan! What say Buddha?
It's almost, nearly, possibly, finally over......
The Hong Kong courts handed down its judgment on the Nina Wang estate today, in favour of......
.......
.......
........the Chinachem Charitable Foundation. Revisit: http://trustprofessioninasia.blogspot.com/2009/07/summer-vacation-and-biggest-trust-case.html
The 326page!! summary is available on the Hong Kong Judiciary website: http://legalref.judiciary.gov.hk/doc/judg/word/vetted/other/en/2007/HCAP000008H_2007.doc
With billions at stake for Tony Chan Chun Chuen (and another's year's fee for his lawyers), I would be surprised if they will not appeal the case. Unless fung shui or Buddha tells him not to that is.
On a more professional note, his Honorable Justice MH Lam's opening remarks serve a nice reminder to all those in estate/succession/testamentary/inheritance work to impress on clients to better/properly plan to avoid similar situations where "The court often has to hear evidence about some darkest corners of a testator or testatrix’s affairs" and tie up their estate for 13years.
[Edit: Tony's been arrested (and later released on bail) for document forgery.]
The Hong Kong courts handed down its judgment on the Nina Wang estate today, in favour of......
.......
.......
........the Chinachem Charitable Foundation. Revisit: http://trustprofessioninasia.blogspot.com/2009/07/summer-vacation-and-biggest-trust-case.html
The 326page!! summary is available on the Hong Kong Judiciary website: http://legalref.judiciary.gov.hk/doc/judg/word/vetted/other/en/2007/HCAP000008H_2007.doc
With billions at stake for Tony Chan Chun Chuen (and another's year's fee for his lawyers), I would be surprised if they will not appeal the case. Unless fung shui or Buddha tells him not to that is.
On a more professional note, his Honorable Justice MH Lam's opening remarks serve a nice reminder to all those in estate/succession/testamentary/inheritance work to impress on clients to better/properly plan to avoid similar situations where "The court often has to hear evidence about some darkest corners of a testator or testatrix’s affairs" and tie up their estate for 13years.
[Edit: Tony's been arrested (and later released on bail) for document forgery.]
Friday, January 29, 2010
Bank of Singapore BOS
Interesting choice for the "new" brand.
Our dear old OCBC, legally known as the Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation. Long history of retail banking in south Asia and, of course, listed on the GSX. For the past few years, its been trying to ditch the "Chinese" part of the brand and going with the acronym OCBC. Just like HSBC rarely mentions the words "Hong Kong" or "Shanghai" in its name these days especially overseas. Guess the marketing gurus surmised that any reference to race, nationality or geographical content was not good for international business.
Now we have a 360 of sorts. For the new private banking business (which was ING Group's Asian private bank until 6-months ago), OCBC has re-branded the unit into Bank of Singapore. (For correctness, OCBC has owned the name BOS since the 50s or 60s and used it in one failed venture or another since - Raymond Chee better hope that this time is a charm!).
One theory mentioned is that "Singapore" was now a valuable commodity in the global private wealth business and would attract those fleeing the grey and black listed jurisdictions offshore and in Europe. On the flip side, any BOS muck up could also tarnish the reputation of the entire Lion City financial sector (or vice versa). Obviously Bank of America is not a central bank but Bank of England is. I would be interested in seeing survey results in Europe or even North Asia on what percentage of people would mistake BOS for a central bank/monetary authority. An unnecessary, high risk move if you ask me (which of course they didn't).
And BOS is hardly a nice acronym to revert to. Much too close to POS (which is not point-of-sales in my book)
Our dear old OCBC, legally known as the Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation. Long history of retail banking in south Asia and, of course, listed on the GSX. For the past few years, its been trying to ditch the "Chinese" part of the brand and going with the acronym OCBC. Just like HSBC rarely mentions the words "Hong Kong" or "Shanghai" in its name these days especially overseas. Guess the marketing gurus surmised that any reference to race, nationality or geographical content was not good for international business.
Now we have a 360 of sorts. For the new private banking business (which was ING Group's Asian private bank until 6-months ago), OCBC has re-branded the unit into Bank of Singapore. (For correctness, OCBC has owned the name BOS since the 50s or 60s and used it in one failed venture or another since - Raymond Chee better hope that this time is a charm!).
One theory mentioned is that "Singapore" was now a valuable commodity in the global private wealth business and would attract those fleeing the grey and black listed jurisdictions offshore and in Europe. On the flip side, any BOS muck up could also tarnish the reputation of the entire Lion City financial sector (or vice versa). Obviously Bank of America is not a central bank but Bank of England is. I would be interested in seeing survey results in Europe or even North Asia on what percentage of people would mistake BOS for a central bank/monetary authority. An unnecessary, high risk move if you ask me (which of course they didn't).
And BOS is hardly a nice acronym to revert to. Much too close to POS (which is not point-of-sales in my book)
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