Estate & Tax Planning Attorney​/Trusts and Estates - General Attorney Singap

Estate & Tax Planning Attorney / Trusts and Estates - General Attorney in Choa Chu Kang, Singapore (General)

Job Title:

AVP/VP, Private Trust Business Development Manager, Private Banking, Consumer Banking Group

Job Responsibilities:

General

Summary:

• Analyse trust documents for legal, tax, administrative, and investment issues and coordinate the delivery of services.
• Make recommendations regarding how the Trustee shall exercise discretionary powers it has as a trustee.
• Possess comprehensive knowledge of trust law and trust administration and apply that knowledge to client-specific planning exercises and trust administration.
• Work with Group Legal & Compliance and/or external lawyers and professional advisors to resolve tax and legal issues.
• Have knowledge of internal procedures involving discretionary/reserved powers distributions, trust administration, bank account opening/closing, and investments.
• Address questions raised by beneficiaries, power holders, protectors, and their advisors.
• Ability to work both independently and in a team-based environment.
• Ensure that all Trustee and Bank policies and procedures are consistently applied and that there is representation at the relevant governance and oversight committees.
• Ability to partner with the client's other advisors (attorney, accountant).

New Business Acceptance:

• Attend to enquiries from Wealth Planners and Relationship Managers on pipelines and proposed trust structures.
• Maintain and update a template library of onboarding documents and guidelines.
• Review legal/tax opinions and amendments to trust deeds and other template documents and liaise with Wealth Planners & professional advisors on proposed amendments.
• Highlight the key points of the trust structure, customised documents, and legal/tax opinions to the Trust Managers & Trust Operations to ensure proper execution & administration.
• Maintain a Register of Pipelines and prepare regular updates and reports on the progress of prospects to management.
• Attend new trust handover meetings to provide clarification on customised structures and highlight any special administration or accounting requirements where necessary.

Support Trust Administration:

• Maintain trust administration templates and draft amendments as necessary for customised transactions and structures.
• Provide guidance to Trust Managers and Trust Operations on structures that require special handling for legal, regulatory, accounting, or tax matters and liaison with professional advisors as necessary.
• Liaise with Legal & Compliance and external lawyers, and provide guidance to Trust Managers on the necessary action steps to be taken for complaints, litigation, and disputes.
• Coordinate ad-hoc projects to remediate structures pursuant to changes in the legal, regulatory, and tax landscape.
• Assist in coordinating and supporting the trust company’s governance functions (., semi-annual board meetings, regular sub-committee meetings, taking of minutes, maintaining terms of reference, etc).

Knowledge Centre:

• Monitor and analyse changes to legal, regulatory, and tax changes that impact trust structures and trust administration.
• Liaise with Group Legal & Compliance and/or external lawyers and professional advisors to obtain the necessary professional advice, and finalise the action steps to be taken in relation to new business and existing trusts (., obtain fresh legal opinion, restructure trust, obtain indemnities, etc).
• Train and educate Trust Managers and Trust Operations on these changes and their impact on trust administration processes.
• Maintain a library of technical resources including legal advice, training slides, etc.

Education and Experience Information:

• A bachelor’s degree in Law.
• At least 4 to 8 years post-qualification experience, either with law firms in private wealth or trust practice or for financial institutions engaged in wealth management/private banking business.
• Strong drafting and analytical skills, organised and motivated.
• Strong risk awareness and sound risk management skills.
• Able to work in a team as well as independently.
• Confident and able to deal with all levels of management throughout the bank.
• Able to demonstrate clear commercial application of legal and regulatory knowledge, and to balance legal or regulatory risks against commercial needs.

Salary Information:

• A competitive salary and benefits package are offered, along with the professional advantages of a dynamic environment that supports development and recognizes achievements.