LITMIR.BIZ

      This edition first published 2016

      © 2016 Philip Marcovici

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      ISBN 978-1-119-32752-3 (hardback) ISBN 978-1-119-32753-0 (ebk)

      ISBN 978-1-119-32754-7 (ebk) ISBN 978-1-119-32904-6 (ebk)

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      Preface

      Now retired from practicing law, I spent my career as an international tax and private-client lawyer, working with families, businesses, and the wealth-management industry, first in New York and Vancouver, then in Hong Kong and Zurich. I have also worked with governments seeking to address the global problem of undeclared funds, and have taught widely in Asia and Europe, learning while sharing my views on the potentially destructive nature of wealth and the failings of the wealth-management industry, and of advisors, to truly help the families they are meant to serve.

      I began working with wealth-owning families on their succession and other needs early in the 1980s, in Hong Kong. Having studied law in both Canada and the USA, I had started out as a corporate tax lawyer in New York, and then moved to Hong Kong where I spent 12 years practicing law. The 1980s and early 1990s were interesting times in Hong Kong. Pretty much the most capitalist place in the world was soon to revert to pretty much the most communist place in the world. China, which was a very different country in the 1980s and early 1990s than it is today, was negotiating the return of Hong Kong by the UK. The UK had been governing Hong Kong under treaties that, in part, were coming to an end after a term of 99 years. The handover of Hong Kong to China was ultimately agreed between Margaret Thatcher and Deng Xiaoping and took place in 1997.

      In the run up to 1997, many of Hong Kong's wealth-owning families began restructuring their businesses in view of perceived political risks and sought second (and third and fourth) citizenships and places of alternative residence. My work changed from being work for companies on their tax affairs to work for the owners of companies looking more comprehensively at their situation, mixing in issues of political risk and asset protection with tax exposures in the USA and elsewhere particularly those associated with cross-border investment and new residences and citizenships. Many of the wealth owners in Hong Kong came from families who had fled China on the arrival of the communists and who suffered the expropriation of their businesses and many other similar setbacks and challenges. They were not about to let themselves lose everything again.

      My work with families in relation to their personal and business assets, and the protection of wealth, led to me working with the wealth-management industry – the providers of asset-management services, trusts, and other “tools” of wealth planning. Something I learned early on is that the industry all too often does not meet the comprehensive needs of the clients it serves. This led to me becoming active in training and education within the industry, and working on strategy for private banks and others interested in greater alignment with the needs of their clients. But overall, I was working in a major growth industry that was – to me – surprisingly chaotic (and often unethical) in its management and delivery of services.

      In the mid-1990s, I moved to Switzerland, where I spent 15 years working with private banks, trust and insurance companies, and the global families that use their services. With young children, we were looking

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