Category Archives: Wealth declarations

Absa Kenya on Wills, Trusts and Succession Planning

Absa Kenya has been holding thought leadership seminars since their rebrand in February 2020.

This week they had an investor education connect session on wealth management, with a focus on wills, trusts and succession planning which featured Madabhushi Soundarajan (Managing Director, MTC Trust), Peter Waiyaki (Partner at Mboya, Wangong’u & Waiyaki Advocates) and Anthony Mwithiga (CEO, Absa Asset Management).

Some excerpts 

Wills:

  • People don’t do wills because they think they have nothing – but anyone over 18 who has been working has something to give. 
  • Another excuse of some educated Kenyans is they think they are courting death or will be marked for death by their families
  • Can do a will in an hour or five years. It does not have to be expensive or complex.  
  • A will should have two things to help a will (i)  a residual clause. assets grow after the will make sure any other assets be distributed the way the old “any other assets  (you don’t have o make a new will (ii) creation of a testamentary trust. 
  • Let your family know where your will is kept. If two wills emerge, the latter one will be used. If a will is destroyed, it is not valid.
  • If someone remarries, it invalidates a will because they are considered to have new dependents. 
  • Do not include matrimonial property should not be in a will. Or joint owner – when someone dies the spouse inherits the full property. They should not be in the will. 
  • Also don’t put investment or trust property in a will.
  • Proof of dependence: wives and children do not need to prove they are dependents. This also includes conceived but not yet born and adopted kids. But parents or siblings of a deceased must prove they are dependent. Also in Kenya, a husband/man will have to prove  he was being supported by a woman.
  • Covid situation: Oral wills are only valid for 3 months and must be mentioned in the presence of two witnesses who are not beneficiaries. And for a written will, someone in a hospital, surrounded by relatives is not considered to have the freedom to write a will. 
  • Without a will, only the family of a deceased person can inherit from the estate. No gifts to charities, churches etc. are recognized. 
  • Do not put assets in a will that already have nominated beneficiaries elsewhere e.g. life insurance, pension funds. 

Trusts:

  • Have the philosophy of giving things up as you will nor carry your wealth to the grave – so start thinking about preservation.
  • Banks are getting worried about lending to trusts. 
  • A trust is not a legal entity, a foundation is a better legal entity that can be created to run a school or a hospital.
  • Most common are discretionary trusts and others are ones that founders can create to run businesses for their families
  • A trust is a lengthy document. In a trust, you can exclude rogue children. 
  • To set up a trust; define the objectives, the trust structure, the beneficiaries, the trustees (ideally a corporate) and seek professional advice. 

Investments:

  • Use professionals e.g. in a unit trust to administer investments if you are too busy. 
  • If you have a vision, take a lead and invest in it so that others will follow.  
  • the realty over the last five year is the property prices can go down, unbelievable to many investors of 15 years ago. Covid has hit offices and malls, but there are still investments in residential, logistic and warehousing ventures.
  • Attributes of an ideal asset; gives returns, it should grow, it should be liquid, be understandable and It should also be secure (legal ownership & from damage). Individuals and families have investment portfolios, as it is not possible to get one asset to full all these attributes. 
  • The investment universe encompasses money markets, treasury bills, bank deposits, and listed shares which now includes a New Gold ETF.  Also unlisted shares (shares in a business stems/OTC), real estate, and alternatives such as derivatives, commodities, currencies and infrastructure projects which is a new asset class open to pension funds.

Suggestions:

  • Everyone should discover what type of investor they are and what stage they are on the life journey to understand what to invest in. 
  • Think investments beyond Covid-19.
  • Write a will today; there is no way of running from your dependents –  except through trusts, which allow one to better organize estates.
  • The best non-taxable investment in Kenya is infrastructure bonds.

Knight Frank on High Net Worth Kenyans – HNWIs

Knight Frank has released its report on wealthy Kenyans or HNWIs (high-net-worth individuals)  whose number and wealth grew in 2018, which was considered a difficult year for the country with the increased cost of living, credit shortage, and post-election economic slowdown.

According to the Knight Frank Wealth Report, the number of Kenyan HNWIs, with net worths, excluding their primary homes, of over $1 million (Kshs 100 million) grew by 306 to reach 9,482 individual. It noted that there were also 82 “ultra-wealthy” individuals, with net worths of Kshs 3 billion, residing in Nairobi.

Some characteristics of the group of dollar millionaires (which also draws from an Attitudes Survey by Knight Frank, among other reports):

  • Home ownership: First and second homes make up 45% of their wealth. Kenyan HNWI’s own an average of 2.7 homes, while those in South Africa own an average of four homes.
  • 18% of HNWI’s bought new homes in 2018 in the country, and 8% bought homes abroad,. 22% plan to buy new homes in the country this year with the drop in luxury home prices and unfavourable economy in Kenya last year considered a good opportunity for property investments. 39% own investment properties in Kenya and 22% have investment properties overseas. 
  • Investment Portfolios: 25% of HNWI investments are in equities (company shares), 22% for properties that earn income, 22% in cash and 20% in bonds. Just 3% goes to private equity – and this has been a sore point for upcoming young companies who have to turn overseas to get equity funding.  
  • Local Preferences:  The report notes that governments around the world are targeting global wealth, and 24% of the ultra-wealthy Kenyans have second passports or dual nationalities but only 9% are considering emigrating with an indicated preference for the UK, Canada and the USA. Half of them educate their children overseas for primary and secondary school and 65% of them send their children overseas for university education. 

  • HNWI’s allocated 3% of their wealth to luxury investments such as arts, wine and classic cars, among other collectables, with the majority collecting cars and jewellery followed by art and furniture. Whiskey and Chinese ceramics also feature, while gold gets 1%.  The Report mentions that EABL has a mini mentorship program to woo more Kenyans to invest in collectible whiskies. 
  • Generational Wealth: Transferring wealth is still a delicate matter among Kenya’s rich, with only 43% of respondents to the Attitudes Survey saying their clients have robust succession plans in place to pass their wealth to the next generation. 

Kenya Tax Amnesty 2018

During a funding session for entrepreneurs last year it was revealed that Kenya has an amnesty for people to declare offshore wealth and repatriate this and that the country expected $3 billion in extra collections from this initiative in 2018. The Kenya government currently collects tax revenue of about $14 billion a year and there was a question on if the additional funding generated could become a source of competition for local private equity funds.

Tax amnesty

The actual notice was first published in July 2017 by the Commissioner of Domestic Taxes at the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) and read “The amnesty under Section 27B of the tax procedures act is meant to provide a one-off opportunity for Kenyan residents to declare assets and income and voluntarily repatriate the foreign-held assets to Kenya and invest in development of the country”

Applications, filings, and returns are to be made on the online KRA “itax” system before June 30, 2018. If funds are not brought in by that date, there is a five-year window (up to June 2023) to bring the funds back, but with an additional 10% of the amount repatriated as a penalty.

Married couples may file for the amnesty jointly, while assets and income that are in the name of minors can be declared by their parents or guardians. But anyone who had been assessed by KRA or was under investigation or audit over their income and assets prior to the amnesty is not eligible.

Deloitte on African Art and Finance

The value of African art can grow tremendously over the next decade with investment and support from buyers both within Africa, and others who live beyond the continent, as well as from African art schools, governments, museums, galleries, art professionals and banks to stimulate and support more interest in African art.

These are some of the findings from the Art & Finance Report 2017 that was unveiled at Deloitte’s 10th Art and Finance conference at the Italian Stock Exchange in Milan this week and which estimated that the value of art owned by Africans collectors was $12.7 billion in 2016 and that it  could grow to $20 billion by 2026. This still accounts for less than 1% of the global art market currently estimated at $1.6 trillion with an annual turnover of $50 billion.

Some key findings of the report which looked at the global art markets include:

  • The art market should be self-regulated and there is great support for art to be part of wealth management offerings to customers at more private banks.
  • Banks need more specialists to properly value and manage art markets.
  • Art can be used as collateral, enabling art collectors and galleries to realize liquidity without having to make unfavorable sales to meet short-term cash-flow needs. See this on how to borrow against art.
  • Art as an investment class poses risks that are no different from others that banks manage and have to guard against, including vices like price manipulation, insider trading, money laundering and terror financing.
  • The top categories in the global art market are  “post-war & contemporary art”, followed by “modern & impressionist art”, “Chinese & Asian art” and ” jewels & watches”.

Some excerpts from the report on the African art market include:

  • International dealers and auction houses like Bonhams and Sotheby’s are seeing a gradual shift in the African contemporary art buyer base from mainly African art collectors to a more international and diverse group of art collectors.
  • London experienced a 12.5%  rise in African art auction sales between 2015 and 2016, with Bonhams controlling a 65% market share.
  • Sotheby’s London joined the African art auction trend in 2017 with its first auction focused purely on African contemporary art. It achieved total sales of over $3.6 million and 79 of the 116 lots were sold.
  • In 2017, record-breaking hammer prices recorded at auction for contemporary art were achieved by Nigerian artist Njideka Akunyili Crosby, whose work sold for less than $100,000 at auction in 2016. However, less than a year later, the artist’s piece “Drown” sold for a record-breaking US$1.1 million at a Sotheby’s auction and a few months after that, her 2012 painting “The Beautiful Ones” sold for US$3.1 million at a Christie’s London auction.

There is currently an inter-section of art, wealth, and technology with the possibility that bitcoin / block-chain can be used to assist banks and financiers with tools to help with transparency authentication, copyrights and ownership of art objects and there are already platforms such as Blockai, Ascribe.io, Chainmark, and smArtchain etc. in use.

The greatest demand for African art is currently from high net worth individuals in Nigeria and South Africa, which are the two largest economies in Africa. The report also notes that there is increasing demand from corporations such as the Nigeria Stock Exchange

Elsewhere In Kenya, Stanbic was working on investor management portfolio offerings that include wine and African art, while Nigeria has Access Bank in Nigeria. There are also other innovations coming up in African art and finance from leading banks and galleries in Kenya, South Africa and Europe.

The Luxury Network in Africa

Last week saw the launch of The Luxury Network in Nairobi, Kenya. This came after a B2B luxury seminar that featured brands that are targeting affluent Kenyans and Africans who will pay extra for quality and exclusivity.

Recent research by IPSOS estimates that there are between 5,000 and 8,000 dollar millionaires living in Kenya. These are defined as people who have made money though business, and entrepreneurship, sometimes through land and government tenders and have liquid cash that is not tied up in land or in current accounts. The country has gone from 5 malls to 51 malls (some under development) in the last decade as more shoppers turn out and the shoppers that the luxury network targets are ready to spend for the right things.

LuxuriousKenya launchSome of the members of the network include Africab Tours (luxury meet & greet service), CJW (bespoke legal services), English Point Marina (a piece of Monaco in Mombasa), Elite Digital (who have been selling Apple products in Kenya for 30 years), Kartell,  Little Red (who sell Italian brands), Majestic Events, SHK Consulting (bespoke PR), RMA Motors (Jaguar, Land Rover franchise in Kenya), Goshen Acquisitions  (strategic land investors)  and Bombardier Aero who plan to open an office in Kenya in 2017.

The luxury network has 25 offices around  the world. In Africa, they are in South Africa, and after the launched in Kenya, they will next go to Nigeria  – which has the highest number of private jets in Africa.

By being members of the luxury network, entrepreneurs enjoy benefits such as alignment and a connection with other global luxury brands, access to pre qualified high net worth private clients, and access to seminars, event and privilege loyalty programs.