[Law Firm Now] Kim & Chang Inheritance and Asset Management Team Composed of the Largest Scale and Top Experts in Korea

Specialized in Governance, Business Succession, Inheritance Gift Tax, and Trusts
Providing One-Stop Integrated Solutions by Top Experts in Each Field
Extensive Experience in Handling International Family Cases

From the left, lawyers Jaechan Park, Sangwook Kang, Jaehyuk Choi, Yongsang Kim, Minjung Park, Yeojeong Yoon, and Hyunju Jang of Kim & Chang's Inheritance and Asset Management Team, accountant Jonggwang Lee, lawyer Taehyung Kwon, accountant Sangdo Ki, and lawyer Junseop Moon / Photo by Kim & Chang

The Kim & Chang Family Inheritance and Asset Management Team boasts a total of over 50 members, making it the largest and most comprehensive team in South Korea. Additionally, depending on the issue, the team has established an organically close collaborative system with other specialized teams at Kim & Chang, such as those focusing on corporate governance, business succession, inheritance and gift tax, and trusts. Kim & Chang’s vast expert group, comprising approximately 1,200 domestic and international lawyers as well as around 1,800 professionals including tax accountants, certified public accountants, and patent attorneys, can be deployed at any time to family inheritance and asset management cases to generate synergy. This “one-stop integrated solution provided through perfect teamwork by top experts in each field connected through a close network” is the distinctive strength of the Kim & Chang Family Inheritance and Asset Management Team.

Introducing key members, lawyers Choi Jae-hyuk (Team Leader, Judicial Research and Training Institute Class 21), Kwon Tae-hyung (Class 28), and Moon Jun-seop (Class 29), who served as senior judges in family courts handling family inheritance trials for several years, provide outstanding legal services in family inheritance dispute fields based on their practical experience in family inheritance trials.

Moreover, due to the nature of family and inheritance cases, it is necessary to resolve disputes and provide advice from a multidimensional perspective that connects not only family law but also corporate law, tax law, and other fields. Lawyers Kim Yong-sang (Class 17), Kang Sang-wook (Class 24), Park Min-jung (Class 29), Lee Song-ho (Class 30), Kwak Yoon-kyung (Class 31), Sung Won-je (Class 34), and Jang Hyun-joo (Class 36), who previously served as senior judges in high courts and judges in district courts, have extensive experience not only in divorce, inheritance, statutory reserved portion, wills, adult guardianship, and inheritance trusts but also in corporate law and general civil and criminal law fields, enabling them to respond quickly and accurately to various issues arising during case proceedings.

Lawyers Jeong Byung-moon (Class 16), Jeong Kwang-jin (Class 30), Lee Sang-woo (Class 32), Eun Jeong-min (Class 38), Park Jae-chan (Class 39), Min Kyung-seo (Class 41), and Yoon Yeo-jung (Bar Exam 3rd) active in corporate governance, management rights disputes, and inheritance and gift tax fields, along with accountants Lee Jong-kwang and Ki Sang-do, form one team to provide professional collaboration in inheritance dispute cases. They also offer “preemptive and dispute-preventive asset succession planning and execution services,” providing roadmaps for business succession, asset management, and tax savings.

Thus, the Kim & Chang Family Inheritance and Asset Management Team is composed of highly specialized experts from various fields who work as one team, demonstrating their know-how and boasting the best teamwork. They also quickly grasp the latest issues and prepare in advance, making them proficient in emerging matters such as will-substitute trusts and discretionary guardianship contracts tailored to an aging society, and they have extensive experience handling international family cases.

The Kim & Chang Family Inheritance and Asset Management Team has successfully handled numerous cases across all areas of family inheritance, including divorce and property division cases, statutory reserved portion cases, inheritance property division cases, corporate business succession and holding company conversion, corporate governance restructuring advisory, will trusts and will-substitute trust advisory, discretionary guardianship contract advisory, marital property contract advisory, as well as other claims such as recognition claims, child support claims, child custody claims, will document verification and opening, and inheritance tax filings.

They possess abundant experience in smoothly managing family inheritance disputes and advisory services for families of large corporation executives and other prominent figures. Due to Kim & Chang’s “confidentiality and trust in work capability,” clients for whom confidentiality is especially important, such as families of large corporation executives and celebrities, increasingly seek Kim & Chang. Recently, as the number of high-net-worth individuals has grown, requests from individual asset owners for complex and significant family inheritance cases have also been steadily increasing.

Choi Jae-hyuk, the team leader of the Family Inheritance and Asset Management Team, stated, “Kim & Chang brings together top experts from each field to collaborate and provide solutions tailored to client needs, from tax planning stages to actual inheritance and gift execution and tax audit stages.”

He added, “In particular, we have diverse experience and know-how regarding issues such as maintaining or restructuring corporate governance following inheritance of company shares, cases where the governing law of inheritance is foreign law, situations where multiple heirs reside in various countries, or inheritance assets are scattered across countries, including handling related laws and foreign exchange issues for inheritance asset processing and reporting. We prioritize client confidentiality over promoting our achievements, making us a trustworthy law firm.”

Lawyer Jeong Byung-moon said, “We will not focus solely on disposing of client assets through inheritance and gifts but will consider various options such as will-substitute trusts to ensure clients’ assets are succeeded without disputes and to prepare in advance for governance restructuring. In cases where inheritance has actually occurred, we will represent heirs from inheritance tax filing to facilitate smooth resolution of inheritance issues without disputes through negotiations among heirs.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.