Expertise

Family Offices

At Covenant Chambers, we value a long-term relationship with each of our clients and aim to be their trusted business partner. We serve high net-worth individuals and families in creating and managing Family Offices for investment management, asset protection, estate and succession planning, tax planning and philanthropy. Our familiarity with Singapore legislation enables us to provide quality advice on regulatory compliance.

Legacy Planning: Wills & Trusts

Planning your legacy is an important part of managing your wealth to ensure that your assets are distributed to your intended beneficiaries and to reduce conflict in your family after your passing. Our lawyers are able to assist in preparing simple or complex testamentary wills which reflect clients' intentions and remove ambiguity in all estate matters and prevent legal challenges in the future.

Our lawyers are also skilled in helping you structure and create trusts to protect, manage, and preserve your assets. From private family trusts and testamentary trusts to discretionary trusts and charitable trusts, creating a trust helps to make clear your intention and the chosen beneficiaries.

We also advise on and assist in preparing Lasting Powers of Attorney and applications under the Mental Capacity Act, e.g. to appoint deputies or make testamentary wills, in situations where a person has lost mental capacity to make key decisions.

Probate & Estate Administration

When a loved one passes on, our team of experienced and meticulous lawyers can help you through the process of applying for a Grant of Probate (where there is a valid will) or Grant of Letters of Administration (where there is no will). These Grants enable the executor or administrator to manage and distribute the assets of the deceased.

While such periods can be grief-filled, we have walked with many estate executors and administrators as they managed the deceased’s assets, ensuring a smooth and proper distribution of assets to the right beneficiaries.

Matrimonial & Family Law

Disputes between spouses can be emotionally draining. Being attentive and highly responsive, we are well-placed to provide prompt, workable and high-quality advice to meet the needs of our clients. We also see ourselves as a peacemaker in every family dispute. We are competent in every area of family law, including annulment, judicial separation, divorce, adoption, maintenance and personal protection applications, mental capacity act applications, and cross-border issues such as division of foreign property and child custody issues.

Our experience includes:

• Successfully represented a flight stewardess in the division of matrimonial assets and successfully argued for the court to add back an aggregate sum of S$200,000 into the matrimonial pool, being monies which were covertly used by the husband to invest in businesses and condominium properties legally owned by third parties. The husband’s appeal to the High Court in TWM v TWN [2021] SGHCF 25 was dismissed.

• Successfully acted for Complainant in claiming maintenance arrears of S$96,000 due and owing. The decision was upheld on appeal by the High Court in VGF v VGE [2020] SGCF 22.

• Successfully acted for a divorced mother in enforcing a child maintenance order, with arrears exceeding the statutory 3-year time bar for enforcement in ULU v ULT [2018] SGFC 45.