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CV

Wei LI

Mr. Wei Li is an accomplished tax and wealth planning professional with over two decades of experience advising prominent financial institutions and families. His expertise encompasses trust design, inheritance planning, and dispute resolution concerning divorces. Drawing on his profound insights into family business, family dynamic, and private wealth, Mr. Li has pioneered several groundbreaking solutions, including China's very first standard family trust product and China's domestic fund + SPV mode of fund structuring. He is also the mind behind innovative legal services products such as “Civil Trust Security Wallet”, “Civil Trust for Inheritance of Special Entitlement of Shenzhen Village Private Estate” and insurance premium trust versions 3.0 and 4.0, overseas and onshore dual trust, and inheritance plan in the mode of updating, all of which have been widely used and praised. In addition to his extensive practical experience, Mr. Li possesses a strong command of legal principles. Tapping into his sound professional records and academic strengths, Mr. Li has frequently contributed his knowledge and insights to themed events and publications and has held leadership positions in professional organizations, including director roles of the trust and wealth planning committees of both Guangdong Lawyers Association and Shenzhen Lawyers association. Mr. Li's top-notch expertise and stellar reputation among clients have earned him consistent recognition and recommendations in wealth management for many years from Chambers, The Legal 500, and Wealth Management Magazine.

Representative Matters

Customization and Maintenance of Inheritance Trusts

  • Served as legal counsel for a listed wealth management institution's family trust product development project

  • Cooperated with a domestic first-tier trust company to develop China's first semi-standardized family trust product

  • Accepted an invitation from the head office of a state-owned bank to conduct family trust training for its national private bank general managers

  • Recruited by a national joint-stock bank to provide dozens of family trust training sessions for its private banking clients across the country

  • Accepted an appointment from a life insurance company to provide special value-added civil trust services to its important customers.

  • Accepted the appointment of a central enterprise trust institution to provide full legal support for its family trust services

  • Issued special legal opinions on insurance trust products of a large trust company

  • Served as the legal counsel for a large trust company’s client on personalized family trusts

  • Acted as legal advisor to a charitable trust and issued legal opinions

  • Established equity and real estate civil trust for shareholders of a listed company

  • Established a civil trust for pre-marital property protection for a family client

  • Established a real estate inheritance civil trust for a local villager in Shenzhen

  • Established a mutual civil trust for a private entrepreneur partner

  • Assisted an entrepreneur to set up an offshore equity family trust

  • Assisted an entrepreneur to upgrade a family trust established by a private bank in Hong Kong

  • Serves as monitor of various private client civil trusts


Wealth Protection and Inheritance Planning

  • A wealth protection and inheritance planning project for a brother entrepreneur in Hubei province, involving a property value of 3 billion yuan

  • A wealth inheritance planning project for an entrepreneur in Liaoning province, involving a capital of 50 million yuan and a building

  • An overseas asset protection and inheritance planning project for an entrepreneur in Yunnan province, involving a property value of more than 100 million yuan

  • An overall planning project for nominee holding, divorce and wealth inheritance for an entrepreneur in Hunan province, involving a property value of 2 billion yuan

    An equity investment asset protection and inheritance planning project for an offshore listed company by a professional investor in Shenzhen, involving a property value of more than 100 million yuan

  • A Sichuan entrepreneur's business inheritance, the planning and arrangement project to prevent the risk from his children’s squandering, involving a property value of more than 1 billion yuan

  • Wealth inheritance planning and security arrangement project for legitimate and illegitimate children of a real estate entrepreneur in Beijing, involving a property value of 5 billion yuan

  • An overseas Chinese entrepreneur in Zhejiang province, domestic and overseas wealth protection and inheritance planning projects, involving wealth value of 1.8 billion yuan

  • A Shenzhen real estate entrepreneur family's property division, enterprise development and inheritance planning project, involving a wealth value of 10 billion yuan

  • Protection for children, family wealth and inheritance planning project for a real estate entrepreneur in Shenzhen, involving wealth worth 2 billion yuan

  • Major shareholder equity and real estate inheritance planning project of a listed company in Shenzhen, involving wealth worth 4 billion yuan

  • Wealth risk isolation planning project for a second-generation entrepreneur in Jiangsu province, involving wealth worth 500 million yuan

  • Mainland asset inheritance planning project for a Hong Kong entrepreneur in Dongguan, involving wealth worth NT$200 million

  • Family wealth protection and inheritance and family committee and family charter planning projects for two generations of entrepreneurs in Sichuan province, involving a wealth of 4.5 billion yuan


Litigation and Arbitration

  • Represented a business family in a divorce case, involving the only son of the family with assets exceeding 50 billion yuan

  • Represented an entrepreneur in a divorce case involving over 100 million yuan

  • Represented an entrepreneur in a divorce and family property dispute case involving nearly 1 billion yuan

  • Represented an entrepreneur in a private equity investment dispute case involving an amount of 80 million yuan

  • Represented a state-owned financial institution in an equity pledge dispute case involving a listed company, involving an amount of more than 300 million yuan.

  • Represented a real estate company in a commercial arbitration case of land cooperative development disputes involving hundreds of millions of yuan.

  • Represented an entrepreneur in an equity dispute involving an amount of 60 million yuan

  • Represented a business family in an inheritance dispute case involving nearly 200 million yuan

  • Acted as agent for a real estate nominee holding dispute, involving an amount of 50 million yuan.

  • Represented a supplier in a dispute over payment and management fees with a well-known supermarket, and obtained compensation nearly 10 times the original claim for the client.

  • Acted as an agent for a commercial arbitration involving a real estate purchase and sale dispute, and obtained compensation four times the amount of the deposit for the client.

Honors and Awards

Ranked Private Wealth Management, Chambers Greater China, 2017-2024

Recommended lawyer in Wealth Management, The Legal 500, 2022-2024

Excellent Professional Lawyer, the 35th anniversary of Shenzhen Lawyers Association, 2023

Top 50 Chief Wealth Advisors in China, TIPTOP Family Trust Structure, Wealth Management Magazine, 2023

The project “Civil Trust for Inheritance of Special Entitlement of Shenzhen Village Private Estate” awarded the second prize, Shenzhen Lawyers New Business Innovation Competition, 2023

China's Top 50 Chief Wealth Advisors, Wealth Management Magazine, 2022

Advanced Individual Participating in and Deliberating Government Work, Guangdong Provincial Committee of the Democratic National Construction Association, 2022

Excellent Family Succession Planning Solution, Wealth Management Magazine, 2021

China Annual High Net Worth Professional Service, Asian Bankers, 2020

Golden Leather Award and Leader of Chinese Family Trust, Global Wealth and Finance Annual Conference, 2019

Excellent Family Trust Service Case, Wealth Management Magazine, 2018

Excellent Vice President, Shenzhen Family Office Promotion Association, 2018

Outstanding Leader of the Year, Wealth Management Magazine, 2018

The first prize of "Excellent Family Wealth Planner, Wealth Management Magazine, 2016

The project “Civil Trust Security Wallet” awarded the first prize, Shenzhen Lawyers New Business Innovation Competition, 2015

Advanced Worker in Legal Publicity and Education, Shenzhen Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government, 2011

Memberships & Affiliations

Director, Trust and Wealth Management Law Committee, Guangdong Province Lawyers’ Association

Member, Legal Affairs Professional Committee, Guangdong Federation of Industry and Commerce (General Chamber of Commerce)

Director, Family Wealth Management Law Committee, Shenzhen Lawyers’ Association

Consultant, legislative research project of the “Shenzhen Special Economic Zone Family Trust Regulations”

Deputy Secretary-General, Legal Work Committee, Shenzhen Municipal Committee of China Democratic National Construction Association

The First Vice President, Shenzhen Family Office Promotion Association

Visiting Professor in some universities, commercial arbitrator, etc.

Publications

“Discussing the Marriage Protection and Wealth Inheritance of Only Child After the Death of Zong Qinghou”, Wealth Management Magazine, 2024

“Family Trusts in China Are Being Seriously Misunderstood”, Wealth Management Magazine, 2023

“Don’t Miss the Six Windows of Opportunity to Protect and Inherit Family Wealth”, Family Office Times, 2019

“Real Estate Inheritance, Family Trust is the Best Choice”, View Financial , 2018

“Case Analysis: A High-net-worth individual’s Difficulties in Domestic Real Estate Inheritance”, Wealth Management Magazine, 2017

“Look through the Charitable Trust and the Top Ten Advantages Seen” Wealth Management Magazine , 2017

“Family Trust Design under the New CRS Policy”, China Forex, 2017

“Countermeasures to Resolve Samsung Group’s Handover Problems”, China Family Business Review, 2017

“Samsung Group Wealth Inheritance Crisis Repeats”, China Family Business Review, 2017

“An Enlightenment of Samsung Shareholding Adjustment on Family Wealth Inheritance”, China Family Business Review, 2017

“How Can You Act as a Good Monitor of a Charitable Trust?”, China Family Business Review, 2016

“The Choice of Inheritance Model Challenges the Families’ Development (An Analysis of the Four Major Models of Family Wealth Inheritance”, China Family Business Review, 2016

“Beware of the Barbarians at the Family Door- the Fight between Allcity and Wanke Brings a Warning in the Protection of Family Wealth”, China Family Business Review, 2016

“Six Major Misunderstandings about Domestic Family Trusts”, China Family Business Review, 2016

“Family Trust First Approach the SPV Model, Expected to Break through the Restrictions on Asset Type” Securities Times, 2015

  • Bar Admissions/Professional Qualifications

    PRC Bar
    Independent Director

  • Education

    Pursuing DBA, EU Business School (Switzerland)
    MSc, University of Greenwich, UK
    LL.B., China University of Political Science and Law

  • Professional Experience

    Equity partner and associate, Zhong Lun Law Firm Shenzhen office, September 2024 to present
    Equity partner and associate, Yingke Law Firm Shenzhen Office, February 2013 - September 2024
    Equity partner and associate, Guangdong SD & Partners, April 2011 - February 2013
    Equity partner and associate, Guangdong Wisdom & Fortune Law Firm, April 2004 - April 2011
    Associate, Guangdong High Seas Law Firm, April 2001 - April 2004
    Associate, Anhui Gaoxing Law Firm, April 1997 - April 2001

  • Languages

    Chinese
    English