A Research On The Legal Issues Of Family Trust In China

The trust originated in the United Kingdom,but with its incomparable wealth inheritance function,it has been transplanted and carried forward by countries all around the world.For our country,trust is not only an "exotic product",but also an "inevitable product" under a specific economic and social background.Since the establishment of our first trust company in 1979,the trust industry has also experienced ups and downs for about 40 years.Since its development,the trust industry has undergone several clean-ups and rectifications.Needless to say,there are twists and turns.In 2001,the "Trust Law of the People's Republic of China" was formally promulgated and implemented,and the subsequent "one law,two regulations" pattern gradually took shape,marking that our trust industry has entered a brand-new legal era.With the support of favorable policies,our trust industry has also successfully ranked among the four pillars of the financial industry.After our country's macroeconomic regulation and control,the trust industry began to seek business transformation and innovation.With its original function and flexible operation,family trusts emerged as a rising star in trust industry.Family trust originated as a way of the ancient British land grant system,and it has been developed for centuries.Later,it was widely used in the field of family wealth management and inheritance,and its history has a long history.Since the reform and opening up,our country's economy has been improving,social wealth has been accumulated unprecedentedly,the amount of private wealth has also risen,and the scale of high-net-worth individuals has also continued to expand.This has brought more and more private wealth management needs.Under this background,our financial instruments have also undergone a development process of innovation and progress.Finally the family trust with the purpose of "providing customers with customized wealth management services" came out.The development of family trusts in our country started relatively late.It has been less than ten years since Ping An Trust Company launched the first family trust product in 2013.Compared with the various financial management tools in the market,family trusts have strong advantages such as flexible operation structure,protection of property safety and protection of personal privacy,so they are favored by high-net-worth individuals.Although family trust has a considerable audience in my country,its "rooting road" in China is not smooth.Initially,the trust industry in my country had a misunderstanding of family trusts.It was generally believed that family trusts were a new type of investment and financial management tool.Therefore,standardized trust products such as “collective fund trust plans” were popular in the beginning,which is similar to family trusts.The original function runs counter to each other.The ensuing product confusion and weak supervision have slowed down the development of family trusts.In order to prevent family trusts from falling into the trap of misinterpreting their original functions,letting family trusts return to their original functions,so solving the dilemma of the lack of institutions currently facing our country has become the primary task.Limited by the lack of a supporting system for family trusts in our country,the practical operation of family trusts is like "oil floating on water".To get rid of this shackle,it is necessary to improve the legal norms and supervision mechanism of family trusts so that family trusts can be realized in our country.In 2018,the “Notice of the Ministry of Trust on Strengthening the Supervision of Trust in the Transitional Period of Standardized Management Business” issued by the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission(Trust Letter [2018] No.37)became the first regulatory document in our country that clearly stated the definition of family trust.The document define the connotation of family trust from the level of legal norms.This is a milestone definition in the history of the development of family trusts in our country.It is worthy of recognition.But the relevant supporting legal systems for family trusts still need to be refined and improved,and many practical problems need time to be resolved.At this time,we need to rely on the practical operation of the family trust,improve the theoretical support behind the family trust,and reshape its legal norms.One of the core elements of the legal relationship of family trust is the trust property,and the issue of the ownership of the trust property is the most concerned issue.When our country transplants trusts system,it is impossible to introduce the "dual ownership" theory in Anglo-American trust law at the same time,because it cannot be integrated with the inherent "one property,one right principle" in our country.Therefore,since the beginning of the creation of the trust system,there has always been a dispute about the ownership of the trust property.On the other hand,the Anglo-American National Trust Law does not clearly distinguish between civil trusts and commercial trusts.The expression of civil trusts is family trust.However,in the process of transplanting trust systems,countries alienate them and generally introduce them into their own countries as commercial trusts.This also makes the development of family trust in the country faced with obstacles.In addition,the trustee is one of the core subjects in the legal relationship of family trusts.Whether the trustee can perform his duties for the benefit of the beneficiary is the cornerstone of the survival of the family trust business.Therefore,common law has always used fiduciary duties to restrict and regulate the trustee.the behavior of.However,my country has always only analyzed the fiduciary duty at the theoretical level,and its specific legal provisions are scattered in several legal regulations,that is,a systematic and complete normative system of fiduciary duty has not been formed.In addition,my country's family trust registration system is not yet sound.The trust registration system is the guarantee of the independence of trust property,and a complete trust registration system is concerned with the security of trust property transactions.Although my country has officially established the China Trust Registration Co.,Ltd.,the implementation rules for trust registration have not yet been issued,and many specific operating procedures in the registration process are not yet known.This is also a problem that needs to be solved urgently under the current legal background in our country.Not only that,limited by the guiding direction of "exploring family wealth management" proposed by the regulatory authorities,family trusts in our country have also shown a different development orientation: highlighting the charitable purpose of family charitable trusts;from living trusts to testamentary trusts;equity family trusts Enter the trust blue ocean.In the process of exploring the new aspects of family trust,we also discovered the development obstacles and system dilemmas contained in it.The dilemma in its development and its causes are analyzed in detail in this article.As a family trust under the trust system,the development of family trust abroad has been relatively early.Therefore,foreign countries already have relatively mature family trust legal theories and regulations.However,the family trust system in our country is still in its infancy,and its value function,design structure and legal foundation are still need to be improved continuously.Therefore,we can appropriately learn from the theoretical basis and practical experience of foreign countries to provide a feasible approach for the "localization" of the development of family trusts in our country.