Winners rationale

Since the independent wealth manager registered the first family office in mainland China in 2015, CreditEase has been relentlessly broadening its service capability and offshore offices network, winning over clients’ trust at a time when the pandemic served as a wake-up call to initiate their wealth planning journey.

As a trailblazer in China’s wealth planning industry, CreditEase has benefited from an awareness about wealth and succession planning, which grew as the COVID-19 pandemic spread. Both the number of families choosing CreditEase for family succession and the number of succession structures created more than tripled YoY in the first half of 2020. The increase in the number of clients resulted in double-digit YoY growth in AUM for the first nine months in 2020.

The firm success in 2020 was supported by its strong digital capability and operational resilience. CreditEase’s digital and compliance strengths allowed clients to open bank accounts under an offshore structure, away from where the structure was created. The firm was able to provide uninterrupted wealth planning services via digital means in over 40 cities, including Hong Kong and Singapore, no matter whether the client was at home or abroad.

Besides the day-to-day connectivity between client and RMs, CreditEase extended the digitalisation of wealth planning services by validating clients’ assets with blockchain and by using data-driven technologies to improve risk control and to assist clients in assessing the quality of investment assets worldwide.

On top of this operational and digital excellence, CreditEase’s wealth planning services inspired clients to give back to the community. It designed innovative ways for clients to participate in philanthropic causes: over 50% of clients under succession structures pledged to gradually donate 1% of their total assets and over 80% have private equity allocations which are indirectly supporting enterprises making an impact in education, environmental protection and healthcare sectors.

In response to Chinese UHNW clients’ demand for more professional and systematic wealth planning services, CreditEase in October 2020 launched Heritvest Family Office, a family office brand under the independent wealth manager, that consolidated CreditEase’s pre-existing FO services. Heritvest provides services regarding clients’ family succession needs in eight areas: family business risk isolation; marriage and risk prevention; designated succession; growth incentives for descendants; tax planning; family philanthropy; retirement planning; and legacy planning. Such holistic service provision is indicative of CreditEase not only catering to the wealth succession needs of UHNWIs, but also being attentive to the well-being of individuals in the family throughout the succession journey.

Combining its wealth of experience in servicing wealthy families in mainland China with its network of offshore offices spread across multiple jurisdictions worldwide, CreditEase has pioneered wealth planning for Chinese UHNWs with all-rounded capabilities that meet their evolving needs.

CreditEase is Asian Private Banker’s Best Independent Wealth Manager – Wealth Planning Services for 2020.