Wills & Guardianship Event Recap

We wish to thank everyone who attended our event at Geek Wine yesterday, and to our speaker Camille Xu for providing us with all details surrounding Wills & Guardianships.

​How do you ensure that your loved ones and property are protected while living abroad?
These are very important considerations to take into account in the event of a parent’s death, and even more so when you’re living in a foreign country as an expat family. 

Talking about Wills & Guardianships, O&G invited Camille Xu, partner at Yingke Law Firm to go in-depth on what families based in Shanghai should take into regard. As a subject matter expert, Camille specializes in Family Law and provides substantial legal assistance and advice in any field related.
Camille began the evening by explaining PRC succession laws and outlined how you can protect your wealth in a way that protects the rights of persons you love and doesn’t create family disputes. A key argument in the opening of her presentation was the importance of having a Chinese will as a foreigner when you have property or kids living in China. Due to limited recognition of foreign wills, getting it notarized by a Chinese notary public would have a higher legal effect of a document.

What Happens to Your Kids?

​Moving further to statutory guardianships the importance of legally appointing a guardian was described. Accordingly, there are three levels of guardians in sequence if the parents of a minor pass away: 

i. Grandparents (paternal or maternal);
ii. Elder brothers or elder sisters
iii. Relatives or friends with close relationship to the minor who are willing to accept the responsibility of guardianship, with approval.

​Should the assigned guardian not be of Chinese residency, a temporary guardian would need to be assigned, in order to ensure that your kids are in safe hands until their legal guardian is present.
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Notifying individuals and institutions closest to your family about their existence is as equally important to having your legal documents in order.

​Ensuring that your legal documents are valid and your kids’ legacy secured, can be even more complicated when living abroad, but having a strong grasp on the legal landscape surrounding wills & guardianships is crucial to not only your family’s but also your financial health. Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions, it would be our pleasure to point you in the right direction.