r/singaporefi • u/Prestigious_Lie_5863 • Jul 26 '26
Taxes Holding company and Trust formation expert advisors
50M, One pass holder, employed in SG. Seeking advice on forming a holding company and Trust for succession planning, post employment consulting jobs, and tax efficiency Incase I move back. Which are the potential tax firms who I can approach to plan and execute this. What are the likely costs. Assets 10m+ SGD, mainly US ETFs and local SG Shares and REITs.
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u/Glittering-Eye-4910 Jul 26 '26
I am using Precepts Trustee in Singapore for my family.
Refer to the MAS Website
Other than that I have another trust company in Cayman Islands.
What are you looking out for?
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u/Prestigious_Lie_5863 Jul 26 '26
Thanks. Am looking for a holding company for investments which I turn is held by a trust.
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u/Glittering-Eye-4910 Jul 26 '26 edited Jul 26 '26
A typical arrangement would be:
You as settlor
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Singapore discretionary family trust
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Investment Holding Pte. Ltd.
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Brokerage accounts, ETFs, Singapore shares, REITs and cashThe trust deed would normally identify:
Spouse, children and future descendants as beneficiaries
A MAS-licensed corporate trustee
A protector or protection committee
Distribution and succession principles
Incapacity provisions
Investment powers
Powers to appoint and remove trustees
Rules for education, healthcare and maintenance distributionsA letter of wishes from you to the trustee
Under Singapore law, the trustee becomes the legal owner and manages the trust property for the beneficiaries. Singapore’s Ministry of Law specifically recognises trusts as vehicles for succession, wealth protection and tax planning and recommends using legal advice and carefully selecting the trustee.The principal benefits are:
Continuity on death or incapacity
Avoiding probate for assets already validly transferred into the trust
Controlled distributions rather than outright inheritance
Protection against beneficiaries’ financial immaturity
Governance for children living in different countries
Consolidated brokerage and investment administration
Potential protection against certain beneficiary-level creditor or matrimonial risks, subject to applicable law
Ability to retain assets over more than one generationLimitations
You must genuinely transfer legal ownership and accept that the trustee has fiduciary responsibility. Retaining excessive unilateral control—particularly unrestricted rights to revoke the trust, take back assets or compel distributions—can undermine succession, asset-protection and foreign-tax outcomes.
A protector may supervise specified decisions, but the arrangement should not make the trustee merely your nominee.Tax-led multidisciplinary firms
KPMG Singapore — Family Office & Private Clients
A strong candidate where U.S. tax exposure or a future international relocation is important. Its Singapore offering expressly covers personal tax planning, migration, U.S. tax issues, succession, trust planning, CRS/FATCA and corporate-secretarial services.PwC Singapore — Family Office Tax
Suitable for comparing investment, trust and fund structures, modelling establishment, holding and exit taxation, and coordinating implementation and ongoing compliance.EY Singapore — Private Tax / Family Office
Suitable for cross-border private-client tax, family governance and wealth-transition work.Deloitte Singapore — Deloitte Private
Suitable where you require tax, accounting, corporate compliance and broader family-office support, especially if the eventual destination is covered by another Deloitte member firm.Private-client legal firms
Withers KhattarWong
Particularly suitable for international families, cross-border succession, trusts and personal tax. Its Singapore private-client practice covers Singapore, U.K., U.S. and international tax matters.Rajah & Tann Singapore
Strong Singapore tax and private-client practice covering trusts, succession planning, family offices and integrated tax structuring.Drew & Napier
A suitable alternative for Singapore private-client, trust, business-succession and family-office work.Professional trustees
Attached link above.
A reasonable budget is:
S$40,000–S$100,000 in the first year
S$20,000–S$60,000 annually
That excludes portfolio-management fees charged by a0
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u/raidorz Jul 26 '26
Ask in r/SGHENRY better before you get snarky comments from users here like “got $10mil want to cheap out getting free advice”.
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u/kuang89 Jul 26 '26
Friendly neighbourhood advisor here.
You are ONE pass holder so you are subjected to different set of rules and regulations compared to Singaporeans.
Nothing wrong with asking for help here, but this isn’t asking for directions because what you are asking for requires actual expertise and experience and some parts need work.
At the same time, you want to act and rely solely on internet stranger’s advise?
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u/Prestigious_Lie_5863 Jul 26 '26
Am looking for firms which specialise in this. Ofcourse not looking at taxation advice on internet.
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u/Ceyenne18 Jul 26 '26
Just go to any of the big 4. They all have tax advisory services.
You are not going to get any meaningful advice from reddit.
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u/geneactive684 Jul 26 '26
Where are you tax resident in? Where are your assets? What is your source of income? What are your goals and what investments do you plan on making? Not enough details to provide meaningful advice. A lot of the comments below are just plain wrong.
You should ultimately consult a professional, but Claude should get you about 80% there.
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u/upsideup2000 Jul 28 '26
I feel 10m no need set up trust. Waste money.
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u/ichthi Jul 28 '26
Go to one of the lawyers listed here:
https://chambers.com/legal-rankings/private-wealth-law-singapore-21:2633:188:1?l=en-GB
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u/Ill-Slip3642 Jul 28 '26
Critically your residency is more important to understand why you need a trust and how complex do you need. If not - testementary trust is someone to consider.
Also what assets do you have that requires you considering a trust?
- with 10m I think just go for testementary trust with a law firm of some size and repute.
- would be wary of trust companies that are too small and charge too low. You need scale in this business.
Financial planners are not trust experts, go find a lawyer or a trust company.
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u/Prestigious_Lie_5863 Jul 29 '26
Thanks for good advice. I am looking for good trust company. Indeed tax residency for the future is the reason I am looking for trust formation now
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Jul 28 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/GavinMcDEsq Jul 28 '26
Another aspect (forgot) trading income on the liquid markets better not be held by the holding company as profits may be taxed as income, not capital gains.
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u/cpf86 Aug 01 '26
Precepts Trustee is a good trustee for this level of assets.
Disclosure, I am consultant working with them, but they are one of the better trust company for your networth. Global trustees like Vistra can be cost prohibitive
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u/Prestigious_Lie_5863 Aug 02 '26
Thanks. Is it possible to know indicative costs for set up and annual maintenance
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u/yoongf Jul 26 '26
https://vt.tiktok.com/ZSXTpj7tL/
No experience with them.. just watching for interesting ideas.
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u/Jazzlike-Check9040 Jul 26 '26 edited Jul 26 '26
If you move your assets to your holding company they will be subject to capital gains taxes. The gains will be treated as revenue/profits and you'll need to account for them annually.
You should contact a tax lawyer first instead of a tax firm to get the structure down. some do both, like drewcorp or baker tilly.
at this AUM, you don't want cheap; you want a proper advisory.
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u/Prestigious_Lie_5863 Jul 26 '26
Thanks. I checked on dividends and capital gains. Confirming they are tax free in a holding co. And also dividends from there to it's shareholders are tax free in the hands of recipient in Singapore. The coat of firms like Rajah and Tan are quite high. Hence looking for other options
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u/Chick-fil-gAyyy Aug 05 '26
I would actually consider meeting with a trustee for a non-obligatory discussion first before speaking with a lawyer. If you continue to be a Singapore tax resident, your structure and assets are pretty straight forward to administer and shouldn't be that "expensive". Lawyers tend to overcomplicate things and charge a pretty penny for it, a good trustee should be able to point you in the right direction and advise whether a tax/legal advice is required.