Deutsche Bank hires wealth planners in Hong Kong

Deutsche Bank Private Wealth Management (PWM) hired Teddy Chu and Andrew Chan to its regional wealth planning team, effective April 19.

Chu becomes head of wealth planning for North Asia, while Chan joins as a wealth planner. Based in Hong Kong, the duo will create wealth preservation and succession solutions for clients in North Asia.

The hires follow the February departures of Shirley Yap and Helen Li who have since moved to Clariden Leu in Hong Kong. They rejoin Jimmy Lee, Asia chief executive at the Swiss private bank, who also previously worked at Deutsche PWM as head of Southeast Asia and joined Clariden Leu in the first half of 2009.

Chu and Chan previously held senior wealth planning roles at HSBC Trustee, part of HSBC Private Bank in Hong Kong. HSBC did not respond by press time to queries about whether the duo have been or would be replaced.

Both now report to Mark Smallwood, Asia-Pacific head of wealth management solutions at Deutsche Bank PWM in Singapore, who notes significant differences between Asia and the West's approach to succession planning.

"Apart from the greater cultural sensitivities around the discussion of passing away in Asia, when compared to the West, there is also a lower comprehension of the legal and tax issues created by a failure to plan," says Smallwood.

"The answer to this process is therefore to focus on legacy and not on death," he adds, "and then to touch on what happens when there is a failure to plan -- ie, intestacy, the problems of probate, who could one trust when one is no longer around to supervise, and tax issues."

To this end, says Smallwood, when clients fully understand the consequences of a failure to plan, they can appreciate how a financial plan could appropriately address and mitigate future family concerns and problems.

"A staggering percentage do not have a will in place," he says, adding that the bank can help with this and with setting up a trust structure.

Within Deutsche's Asia PWM unit, there are three teams of wealth planners located in Geneva (largely servicing non-resident Indians), Hong Kong (North Asian families) and Singapore (non-resident Indians and Southeast Asian families).

Chu and Chan are part of a team of four reporting to Smallwood. Two are based in Singapore and two in Hong Kong. There is another wealth planner based in Geneva who covers wealth planning for the non-resident Indian market.

These teams support relationship managers in presenting to clients holistic solutions to their wealth planning needs, which mainly focus on estate and succession planning issues, including cross-border planning.