New World’s Distress Is Cautionary Tale for Hong Kong’s Billionaire Families

Bloombery, 28 September 2025

“The Hong Kong real estate market has overcome troubles before. But if, as some warn, today’s problems run deeper, the implications are stark. Rich they are, the heirs of these ultra-wealthy real-estate families could struggle to replicate the outsized success of their patriarchs.”

“What’s happening now is not only to New World, and it is not about just one family. It’s about a whole structural reset.”

Li Ka-shing’s China Clash Unnerves Rich Investors in Hong Kong

Bloomberg, 13 May 2025

“The real shift is in how families hedge – not just market or interest rate risk – but also geopolitical exposure. While the CK Hutchison deal hasn’t sparked a wholesale shift away from Hong Kong, it has certainly reinforced an existing mindest: that geopolitical exposure needs to be managed just as thoughtfully as market risk.”

Is it too early to talk about winning or losing? Why was Zong Qinghou’s arrangement put on hold before the Wahaha offshore family Trust was established

YICAI, 2 August 2025

“If a constructive trust is found to exist under Hong Kong equity law, it also signifies that the crux of the case will no longer be whether the trustee “has executed a trust deed,” but rather whether the trustee “has discharged his fiduciary duties.” Should the court confirm that an oral or factual trust has been validly constituted, the three children will acquire the status of beneficiaries, and the Hong Kong court’s freezing order will accordingly be extended and may potentially be escalated into a distribution order or an order for delivery.”

Wahaha’s offshore family trust is embroiled in a Rashomon scandal. What factors determine the existence and validity of a trust?

YICAI, 28 July 2025

“In common law jurisdictions such as Hong Kong SAR, China, courts may, under certain circumstances, recognize so-called “resulting trusts” or “constructive trusts” even in the absence of a written trust deed, based on the parties’ conduct and the surrounding factual matrix. Such claims typically hinge on three core determinations: whether there was a clear intention to create a trust, whether the trust property is identifiable, and whether the beneficiaries or their class are ascertainable.”

RWA and Asset Globalization: Shortcut or Risk?

HKEJ, 23 October 2025

“In the summer of 2025, Hong Kong regulators announced the launch of the world’s first RWA (Real-World Asset) registration platform, almost concurrently with the formal entry into force of the Stablecoins Ordinance. Against this backdrop, “RWA” rapidly became a focal point of industry discourse. This development inevitably raises a core question: can high-net-worth families in Mainland China leverage RWA to effectively “move” their assets offshore, exchange them for foreign currency-denominated funds, and ultimately have such assets settled in overseas trusts?”

How do families Select trustees from the Formosa Plastics Trust Case

HKEJ, 25 September 2025

“The most critical issue in family trusts is not the complexity of the trust structure, but rather ‘who’ serves as the trustee. Taking the recent case of the Formosa Plastics family in Bermuda as a point of departure, this article examines how the courts define and delineate the attributes of a ‘good trustee’.”

China tax shift: Offshore trusts face reality check as CRS disclosures bite

APB, 1 July 2026

An assessment of the enhanced transparency requirements for cross-border trusts under the CRS 2.0 framework and the evolving approaches to trust structure interpretation and disclosure.

China crackdown rattles Hong Kong wealth hub status

Nikkei Asia, 22 June 2026

Here is a more concise yet professionally phrased translation:

—

“Recently, many mainland entrepreneurs, family offices, and advisors have focused on Decree No. 837, cross-border investment rules, Hong Kong accounts and entities, family trusts, and the viability of offshore structures. In our view, this should not be read as Hong Kong’s decline or as a rejection of compliant offshore planning. Rather, cross-border wealth arrangements are moving into a phase with higher standards of interpretation, documentation, and governance.”