Insights topic
Legal, estates and compliance
Trusts, probate, powers of attorney, 99-1 arrangements and AML checks. This is the part of a transaction where an error is expensive and slow to unwind, and where most published guidance is either a law-firm advertisement or years out of date. None of it is legal advice — it is what the rules say, with the sources, so you know what to ask a lawyer.
4 guides · 10 answered questions · last verified 2 August 2026
10 questions on this topic, answeredGuides
- 9 min read
Buying property in trust for a child: the 65% you pay first, and how to get it back
Transferring residential property into a living trust triggers ABSD (Trust) of 65%, which must be paid in full upfront — there is no upfront waiver — and remission of the difference must be applied for within six months of executing the instrument, with full remission possible only where the beneficiary holds a vested, unconditional beneficial interest.
Updated 2 August 2026
- 8 min read
IRAS caught 166 of 187. The 99-1 arrangement your friend recommended is the one being audited
Decoupling — one co-owner selling their share to the other so a subsequent purchase counts as a first property — is lawful, but the "99-to-1" variant where a buyer takes a 1% sliver purely to spread ABSD was audited by IRAS across 187 cases, 166 of which were found to be tax avoidance under Section 33A of the Stamp Duties Act, attracting the rightful duty plus a 50% surcharge.
Updated 2 August 2026
- 6 min read
Why your agent asks where the money came from: AML and CDD in Singapore property
Under the Estate Agents (Prevention of Money Laundering, Proliferation Financing and Terrorism Financing) Regulations 2021, every Singapore salesperson must verify a client’s identity and source of funds, screen them against UN and FATF designated lists, keep the records for at least five years, and file a Suspicious Transaction Report with the STRO where suspicion arises.
Updated 2 August 2026
- 10 min read
You cannot sell it yet: the probate trap that costs Singapore families their buyer
A property belonging to someone who has died cannot be sold until the court grants representation — Probate where there is a will, Letters of Administration where there is not — and families who accept an offer before that grant is extracted routinely lose the buyer to the delay.
Updated 2 August 2026