Research On The Legal System Of Family Trust In China

In recent years,family trust,as a legal tool to protect,manage and inherit the wealth of many families(enterprises)worldwide,has drawn high-net-worth individuals'(HNWIs)attention.The reason lies in,on one hand,thanks to the continuous development of China's market economy,the total amount of social wealth and individual wealth increase significantly,generating a great demand for protection,management,and inheritance of wealth;on the other hand,as a mode of wealth management,the two-way isolation property and the optimal design of trust structure of trust property meet the maintenance and creation of wealth,family inheritance and family enterprise governance and a series of diverse needs of high-net-worth individuals,contributing to the realization of “create,maintain and inherit wealth” goal.Compared with traditional family trust and traditional wealth inheritance system,family trust has its own particularity and can not generally be placed in the scope of the basic law of the family trust.So,the United States,Britain,and offshore areas have made many regulations on family trust.In contrast,China's family trust legal system has not yet been fully established.Although the “Trust Law” promulgated in 2001 provides the institutional soil for the rooting of family trusts in our country,due to the ambiguity and imperfection of the legal system,especially the lack of the family trust legal system,the China's family trust develops in difficulty.Thus,based on the status quo of family trust system and practice in our country,this paper attempts to establish a family trust system which fits the reality of our country through the comparison and reference of extraterritorial system.In addition to the Introduction and Conclusion,this paper is divided into four parts:The first part studies the basic theory of family trust.In this part,the author tries to analyze the historical evolution,legal characteristics and legal functions of family trust by introducing its specific social background and instance analysis.Moreover,this paper makes a comparative analysis of the family trust and the related system,so as to reveal the unique meaning of the family trust and provide theoretical support for the following discussion.The second part discusses the current situation and characteristics of family trusts in China.As an effective way to protect,manage and inherit wealth,family trust gets increasing attention in recent years.This part starts with the current situation of the development of family trust in our country and analyzes the present situation,the operation mode and the general characteristics of the family trust to pave the way for the legal bottleneck of the family trust system in our country.The third part makes an in-depth analysis on the legal problems existing in the family trust.First,the insufficiency and ambiguity of the basic legal system of family trust legal mechanism,including the lack of trust property,the imperfect system of trust registration,the lack of trust tax system and the imperfect protection mechanism of beneficiary rights.Second,the special deficiencies of China's family trust legal system,including the over-control of family trust trustor and the absence of special protection system for beneficiaries of family trusts.Third,the imperfect supporting legal system of family trust,such as difficulties faced by real estate family trust and equity family trust.The fourth part suggests ways to improve family trust system in our country.Considering the current difficulties in the development of family trust in China,it is urgent to establish a profound theory from the perspective of the whole system.This part discusses the reform of the system from three levels:.First,improve the legislation of family trust in our country;second,establish a special legal system of family trust;last,reform other legal fields relating to the development of family trust.