‘Introducing the Special Needs Trust to Hong Kong’

For many years, parents of children with special needs live with an agonisi ng worry: since their children are unable to manage their own financial affairs, what will happen to the assets the parents set aside for the children’s care and well-being once they pass on? The trust is an ideal mechanism for professional asset management, but the capital and fees involved place it beyond the means of most families.

Professor Lusina Kam Shuen Ho and Associate Professor Rebecca Wing Chi Lee’s research has directly led to the setting up of a special needs trust (SNT) in Hong Kong. They proposed an SNT model that saves costs by pooling the funds contributed by parents for investment. Their suggestions were submitted to the Government in an informal policy paper in October 2015 and they received a quick response. In February 2016, the Government set up a working group to investigate the feasibility of establishing an SNT and appointed Ho to provide expert advice on the SNT’s design. Ho and Lee also collaborated with the Concern Group of Guardianship System and Financial Affairs, an NGO, to provide supporting data and convinced the Government that a government-managed SNT was both desirable and feasible.

After allocating HK$50 million to set up an SNT office in February 2018, the Government formally launched the SNT in December 2018. The SNT is able to benefit the families of some 250,000 individuals whose disability (be it intellectual disability, mental illness, or autism) renders them unable to manage their own property affairs. It also affords parents peace of mind in knowing that, upon their passing, their children’s well-being will not be affected.

In having a government act as trustee, Hong Kong’s SNT is the first of its kind in the world. On the back of its success, NGOs in South Korea invited Ho and Lee to explain the workings of the SNT to the Korean Government, which then decided in 2018 to launch its own SNT.

Professor Ho and Ms Lee received the University’s Knowledge Exchange Excellence Award 2018 for this project.