Established in 2009, the Estate Planning Practitioners Limited (EPPL) is the body that champions literacy in Estate and Succession Planning as a professional practice throughout Asia by conducting training, seminars, conferences and exchange of ideas. EPPL jointly certifies AEPP® with Society of Wills Writers from UK.
To date, it has equipped more than 9,000 professionals in Asia with the knowledge of Estate and Succession Planning. The EPPL has appointed Precepts Academy Pte. Ltd. to conduct professional programmes for the advisory industry, particularly for the Associate Estate Planning Practitioner (AEPP®) designation programme. The AEPP® designation has already established a strong reputation in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Hong Kong and China.
EPPL also works with various Asian country representatives to heighten awareness of the crucial estate planning component of wealth distribution (in the context of complete wealth succession planning). To date, it has built a network of professional communities in this field.
To equip professional advisors with applicable knowledge on Estate Planning and Wealth Succession to complement comprehensive financial planning.
To provide for continuous professional growth of professional advisors by facilitating networking sessions and career pathways.
With EPPL as a platform, Estate Planning as a professional practice is being promoted throughout Asia via training, seminars, conferences and exchange of ideas where EPPL is represented. EPPL is also responsible for working with various country representatives to promote the current professional designation – the Associate Estate Planning Practitioner (AEPP®) designation – and other future designations related to the practice of estate planning.
EPPL has taken on the role of acting as an introducer to Precepts Trustee Ltd (License No. TC000040), a licensed trust company in Singapore. It is making a breakthrough in the estate planning industry, by enabling digital trusts through a business unit EPPL Digital.
With a mission to create the big bang in trusts, EPPL Digital was formed by EPPL in 2021 to spearhead digitised estate planning and trust services using state-of-the-art technology. It provides a platform to enable anyone wanting to create a trust conveniently and at low costs through an entirely digitised process. As an approved project in Singapore, all documentation is stored online for easy retrieval.
EPPL Digital facilitates estate planning and trust solutions such as the ProviTrust, and it acts as an introducer to Precepts Trustee Ltd, a trust company licensed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).
The impetus for the AEPP® qualification was premised on the model in the United Kingdom by Brian McMillan, Director General of The Society of Will Writers.
The Society of Will Writers is a well-respected non-profit self-regulatory organisation which seeks to protect the public and serve the interests of active professionals in the field of will-writing and estate planning practice in the United Kingdom. Today, the Society has the largest database of highly qualified and indemnified will writers and estate planning practitioners (including Financial Advisors).
The Society of Will Writers is a non-profit making self regulatory organisation which seeks to protect the public and serve the interests of those men and women who are active professionals in our field.
The Society of Will Writers was founded in 1994 and has since grown to become not only the largest, but also the leading self-regulatory body governing Will Writers and Estate Planners alike. They have members across the UK, Europe and further afield in places such as Asia and Africa.
The Society has set itself two main tasks:
The Society of Will Writers (SWW) was established in 1994 as an independent body representing the professional Will Writer and the interests of the consumer. Today, the Society is the largest trade body within our profession and has members throughout the world, especially where there are high concentrations of UK citizens living and working abroad.
Chiwi was called to the Bar of England & Wales as Barrister-at-Law in 1986 and admitted as an Advocate & Solicitor of Singapore in 1988. In 2004, he was appointed as Chief Executive of British & Malayan Trustees Limited. He joined Rockwills Singapore in 2008 as Chief Executive and in 2020 helmed the business under the new brand “PreceptsGroup International”.
Widely recognised for his expertise in the Trusts industry, Mr Lee Chiwi is a TEP member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners and served as Chairman of the Singapore STEP Branch in 2014/15. In 2015, he was also designated ChT (Chartered Trustee) by the Singapore Trustees Association, a title borne only by senior trust practitioners in Singapore.
Chiwi held position as member of the Law Society’s Probate Practice and Succession Planning Committee, and as adjunct lecturer at the Singapore Management University’s Masters’ program in Wealth Management, (Estate Planning and Tax). He has regularly been invited to speak at various seminars, including those organised by the IRAS and the IBF. He is the author of various books including the “The Preceptsgroup Guide to Succession and Trusts in Wealth Management ”, 4th edition 2021 and the “Drafting trusts and will trusts in Singapore: a modern approach James Kessler QC and Chiwi Lee”.
Amy has over 20 years of experience working in wealth management and wealth planning, servicing High Net-Worth clients and families with their family succession, tax planning and cross-border asset protection matters from Greater China and ASEAN regions. She has worked with Barclays Wealth London, Pictet & Cie London, CICC HK, UBS HK, and Vistra Singapore and current with Hawksburn Group, a Multi-Family Office based in Singapore.
Amy has thorough understandings of different wealth planning tools including Trust, Insurance (UL, VUL, PPLI), Family Governance, Wills, Shareholder Agreement and fluent with the application of these tools in accordance to different tax background and family circumstances. She is also familiar with many trust jurisdictions including HK, Singapore, BVI, Jersey, Guernsey, Labuan and Bahamas as well as Singapore and HK Family Office set up and Singapore and HK Charitable Trust and Foundations.
While Amy advises her client on wealth planning and investment management, She is also passionate about ESG and Impact Investment in the past year, bridging capital to make the world a better place.
Amy holds a master’s degree in law (LLM). She is a full member ‘TEP’ of the Society of Estate and Trust Practitioners (STEP) and an AEPP® Designee. She also holds IMC (Investment Management Certificate) from the CFA Society from the UK. Amy speaks English, Mandarin and Cantonese.
As the strategic partner of Financial Planning Standard Board (FPSB CHINA), BFAT is aiming to provide state-of-art support and consulting service to Enterprises, Financial Institutions, financial planners and individual investors. Until now BFAT has built up the strategic relationship with over 20 banks in China and over 30,000 financial planners have registered on the BFAT APP platform.
James Zhang has over 12-year experience in the banking business both in China and globally, including China Merchants Bank, Industrial & Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) and Deutsche Bank Germany respectively. James also has an 8-years insurance management experience in China. He was the Chief bancassurance officer of Allianz China and General Manager of AXA Hebei Branch. James Zhang is the visiting Professor of Hangzhou Financial Institution and holds an MBA degree at Beijing University.
Cindy Wong is the Founder Director of Estate Planning Practitioners (HK) Limited (“EPPLHK”), an estate and succession planning company incorporated in Hong Kong.
EPPLHK is a Hong Kong Trust or Company Service Provider (“TCSP”) licence holder. EPPLHK provides professional training through the Associate Estate Planning Practitioner AEPP® Program to upskill financial professionals with estate and succession planning knowledge as well as an independent trust advisory services for the exclusive use of AEPP® designees. The advisory service aims to support the AEPP® designees in putting knowledge to practice, creating robust and comprehensive solutions for the ultimate clients based on a holistic approach.
Cindy holds a Bachelor of Business degree from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (’94), an MBA from Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California, USA (’01) and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Translation and Interpretation Studies from Singapore University of Social Sciences (’17). She is awarded the Certified Trust Practitioner™ (CTP) qualification by Hong Kong Trustees’ Association and the AEPP® Designation by Estate Planning Practitioners Limited, Singapore and Society of Will Writers, United Kingdom. Cindy is a full TEP member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners, UK.
Cindy has over 28 years of working experience spanning corporate banking, investment banking, financial planning, estate planning and trust advisory sectors. She started her career with Bank of Tokyo in Singapore (now MUFG) in the area of corporate banking and syndication loans for Japanese MNCs and built on the experience in Commerzbank AG serving the banking needs of European companies in Singapore. She later moved on to Investment Banking – Institutional Sales (Greater China Desk) in BNP Paribas Securities and Derivatives Trading in Singapore Exchange. Cindy focused on financial and estate planning for private clients following her relocation to Hong Kong where she is based now, advising clients on their wealth protection and wealth transition needs.
