EFG Insurance Summit 2018 - Hong Kong

Richard Grasby advises individuals, trustees and related entities on cross border private client issues. Richard has particular experience with offshore structures having worked previously for leading Cayman Islands / BVI law firms. Richard has been based in Hong Kong since 2009. Richard is the current chair of the Hong Kong branch of STEP. Richard Grasby is admitted to practice in England and Wales and the British Virgin Islands. He was formerly admitted in the Cayman Islands.

Before joining EFG as Senior Managing Director, Head of Private Banking, Richard Straus was Managing Director and Market Head responsible for Bank Julius Baer's Taiwan customer franchise. Originally from the United States, he has lived and worked in Asia for nearly 20 years. He moved from Citi Private Bank where he headed up the Asian Family Office and Institutions business to Bank Julius Baer. Prior to that, Richard was in charge of Citi's offshore and onshore private banking activities for Taiwan. His 29 year banking career includes senior sales and product management roles as well as CFO and COO assignments in Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, and the United States. Richard has a bachelor degree from Haverford College (PA, USA) and an MBA from Washington University (MO, USA). He has been a CFA charter holder since 1998. He is a member of the New York Society of Securities Analysts, the Hong Kong Society of Financial Analysts, and the Hong Kong Securities and Investment Institute. Richard resides in Hong Kong with his wife. He has two adult children, who live and work  in the United States. He enjoys hiking, skiing, cooking and playing the guitar.

Before rejoining EFG as Senior Managing Director, North Asia Head, Kees was a Managing Director at Hubbis. Kees Stoute IBFA, ran Sonam, a private banking training and consultancy firm, since 2012, during which time he also authored the book ‘Help, I’m Rich’ (John Wiley & Sons). Prior to that, he was the managing director of EFG Bank in South-east Asia. Kees has a distinguished career spanning the academic, IT & operations and private banking sectors, and has more than 20 years’ experience in Asia, most of the time spent in Singapore. From 2000 onwards Kees was in charge of the Private Bank of MeesPierson in Asia. MeesPierson was part of the Fortis Group, which acquired London-headquartered Dryden Wealth Management in 2005, of which Kees became global CEO and Chairman. After the integration of Dryden into Fortis, Kees moved on to the position of Managing Director of EFG Bank Singapore, where he remained in charge until March 2012. He left EFG Bank to set up and develop Sonam BV. He subsequently joined Hubbis as Managing Director in 2015. An experienced private banker, Kees served at MeesPierson from 1992 to 1996 as its regional head of IT. In 1996, he was promoted to the position of chief operating officer of Fortis / MeesPierson in Singapore. In this position, he became a member of the regional management team of MeesPierson Private Banking. In April 2000, he moved on to become managing director of the business line private banking and trust in Asia for MeesPierson and in 2002, he was (in addition) promoted to managing director of the legal entity MeesPierson Asia Ltd in Singapore. In 2011 Kees became one of the first in Singapore to be certified by the regulator in Singapore (IBF) as Financial Industry Certified Professional (FICP – Role Model 6), now called IBFA. In the same year, he was also invited to participate in the Private Banking Industry Group, a consultative forum which was established by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to further strengthen the competency and market conduct standards of the private banking industry in Singapore. In 2012, Kees became the inaugural winner of the Hubbis Recognition of Excellence in Asian Wealth Management Award. In September 2015, Kees was given a certificate to denote his status as an ‘IBF Advanced Fellow’ for 2015. 

William Ahern has over 20 years' experience in Hong Kong and elsewhere in Asia in helping families deal with complex tax, succession and legacy issues. William was admitted as a solicitor in Brisbane in 1980, and in England, Wales and Hong Kong in 1988. He was the trust and tax partner at Hong Kong law firm Deacons between 1990 and 1994. He lived and worked in Brisbane between 1994 and 1999 where he continued to represent Hong Kong families and law firms, and a Jersey Trust Company specialising in cross-border tax and succession planning. After returning to Hong Kong in 1999, William worked as a consultant to a private client specialist law firm, and the Director of Trust and Legal Affairs of an international trust company. Between December 2002 and June 2008 he was Managing Director of HSBC Private Bank's strategic tax advisory arm. William established Family Capital Conservation Limited (a Hong Kong company) in June 2008 to focus on providing independent and strategic advice to families and intermediaries in complex tax, succession and legacy planning. 

Experienced Channel Head in Partnership Distribution with over 20 years of working in the insurance industry. Skills in Business Development, Brokerage, Bancassurance, Training & Development

Joel Tan has been in the finance industry for more than 12 years with a specialisation in providing insurance solutions for high net worth clients. Joel has been with a Big 4 accounting firm, with a background in individual taxation and is an Accredited Tax Practitioner (ATP). In his role as a tax consultant, he has serviced high net worth clients and expatriates with solutions to ensure their tax matters are compliant to their unique situations. He has also been part of a private bank trustee as well as an independent trust company. In his role as Trustee, Joel has provided clients with structuring advice to assist clients with their estate plans as well as providing fiduciary duties. In 2013, Joel moved into the high net worth insurance space and has been partnering private banks and client’s trusted advisors to provide holistic wealth creation/protection solutions. Joel graduated with Bachelor of Commerce from The University of Queensland.

Dr. Gollum Shau has 30 years of extensive experience in advising in legacy and financial planning with main focus on advising to the High Net Worth families. Prior to joining Grandtag as Managing Director for North Asia, Dr Shau has been Assistant General Manager of a multi-national insurance company managing over 1,000 front-line sales professionals. Dr Shau is very sought after for his professional services in advising High Net Worth individuals to achieve their wealth transfer planning objectives with internationally-sourced life insurance based solutions. Dr Shau is current President of LOMA Society of Hong Kong.

With more than 30 years of relevant industry experience, David spent the first 19 years of his professional life in banking and wealth management. Beginning in client-facing sales roles, he moved on to building, managing and developing high-performance teams of client-facing Wealth Managers in large financial services organisations in the UK. In 2001, he founded a consulting and training business, and established it in South East Asia. He successfully worked on over 200 assignments with clients across Asia, India, and The Middle East. In 2011, David joined Hubbis, becoming Head of Learning Solutions. David has directed and managed a range of projects around the region with many large international and Asian-based private banks, wealth management organisations and other financial services institutions. These have focused on the development of senior and middle-management skills, front-line sales staff skills and knowledge, as well as sales, sales management and client engagement process development. Clients with which David has created and delivered skills training include: AXA; BSI Bank; Bank of Singapore; Bank Julius Baer; Barclays Wealth; Coutts; Credit Suisse; EFG Bank; HSBC Private Bank; Prudential; The Royal Bank of Scotland; UBS; UOB; and Zurich International.

Francis is a veteran in the universal life insurance industry and has extensive experience in wealth planning. He has more than 20 years of experience in the financial services sector with special focus in the high net worth clientele in Asia and UAE. He joined Linden Group in 2010. Prior to joining Linden Group, Francis was Director and Head of Aon Private Risk Management in Aon Corp Singapore. He spent about 10 years at Aon where he set up and grew its private client business.

John is the China Family Business and Private Client Services Leader. He has 30 years of experience specializing in helping high net-worth individuals and families primarily based in Asia Pacific with Chinese and other nationalities to devise tailor-made tax planning, family wealth and business succession planning to achieve the specific personal and family goals of such clients by using trusts, insurance and other appropriate structures for the implementation of such planning as well as setting up Family Offices and devising family governance and constitution. He has extensive experience in advising various China and Hong Kong based international financial institutions and trustees and is also a frequent speaker at wealth forums and tax seminars.

Dr. Silvio Struebi is a Partner at Simon-Kucher's Hong Kong and Singapore Office. He is a member of the Global Banking Practice and heads the company's banking operations in APAC. Silvio focuses on international Private Banking and B2B Banking in Hong Kong and Singapore. Silvio has more than twelve years of consulting experience. He advises a broad array of local and global financial institutions on multiple topics, starting from monetisation and product management to market-specific implementation of growth strategies. Prior to focusing in the APAC region, Silvio served Retail, Private Banks and Asset Managers in Switzerland and Europe. Prior to joining Simon-Kucher, Silvio worked for an international Private Bank in Zurich and at a consulting start-up. He received his PhD in Marketing from the University of St. Gallen and has a Masterʼs degree in business administration.

Kevin is the head of private wealth (Greater China) for Stephenson Harwood. He has been consistently ranked in top band by Chambers HNW and Legal 500 for Private Client lawyers in Hong Kong. He is one of the leading private wealth, tax and trust practitioners in Asia Pacific. Kevin also advises on family businesses, and has represented corporate clients on commercial transactions and establishing operations in Hong Kong. Qualified in Hong Kong and Canada, Kevin advises clients in respect of both jurisdictions. Kevin acts as counsel for major corporations headquartered in Hong Kong and elsewhere. He advises on the registration, corporate tax, intellectual property, employment and immigration aspects of doing business in Hong Kong as well as on cross-border transactions. Kevin also represents numerous high net worth clients from around the world on diverse matters including succession planning, family trust, tax advisory and compliance, wills and estate, asset preservation, family business succession and governance, private equity investments and philanthropy. Aside from representing trust settlors and beneficiaries, Kevin also advises trust companies on Hong Kong registration, licensing and regulatory compliance issues.

Prior to joining Swiss Life Steve Hickman worked for Old Mutual as Head of Region, CEO & Global Head of High Net Worth. Prior to this he was at HSBC in Hong Kong, where he was head of distribution for HNW worth business. At HSBC he played a key role in the design and implementation of the HSBC high net worth insurance proposition. Prior to HSBC, Steve worked for American International Assurance in Hong Kong, where he redesigned the high net worth brokerage channel. Steve has 25 years of insurance experience, including 16 years in Asia. Before coming to Asia, Steve gained extensive sales experience in the US, South America, Eastern Europe working at AIG, American General, Sun America and ALICO.

Christiaan is a CPA registered in Hong Kong, the UK and South Africa. He has worked in financial services for more than 30 years in a career spanning Europe and Asia, including almost 20 years in the trust industry. Christiaan holds the STEP Advanced Certificate in Family Business Advising, which he completed with distinction. He can speak English, Afrikaans, Dutch and French.

John has over 25 years of experience in helping clients with their Trust, Tax and Structuring needs. His varied knowledge base spans Family Wealth, Corporate Clients & Business Owners and Employer & Benefit Solutions. He is a Chartered Accountant, Chartered Tax Advisor, and a long-standing member of many professional  institutions including STEP and the International Tax Planning Association (ITPA). He started his career working for ‘Big 4’ accounting firms in Australia specialising in Tax and Business services for private and corporate clients. He then moved to the Trust and Corporate services industry where he took up various senior positions with international trust groups spanning 20 years in Samoa, Singapore and Hong Kong.