Millie Chan

Millie started her legal career in Malaysia. Her practice in the first 7 years concentrated on commercial litigation. In the following 2 decades, her primary focus was on corporate/securities and commercial matters, including corporate finance. She advised clients on stock exchange listing, initial public offering and on issues of corporate governance and compliance. She was active in advising on take-overs, mergers and acquisitions, and on corporate reorganizations and corporate debt restructuring. She also advised financial institutions on banking and loan transactions, and loan restructuring.

In 2010, Millie was admitted to the Law Society of British Columbia, Canada. She practised law in the Vancouver office of Borden Ladner Gervais LLP (see link). She was a member of the Tax Group, the Corporate and Commercial Group, as well as the Family Wealth Counsel Group. She was also BLG Senior Consultant for Asia Pacific Markets. Millie’s practice in BLG was steeped in the area of global estate planning. She also advised immigrants to Canada on tax planning options.

In 2018, after more than 37 years in the legal profession, Millie founded Legacy 127 to focus on consulting with families in their journey as they plan for wealth transition. In particular, Millie consults with high-net-worth Asian business families in the area of holistic global estate planning, involving inter-generational wealth transfer, asset protection, and capital preservation. In the terminology of holistic planning, wealth is defined to include intangible “assets” such as the family identity, vision, values and traditions. In addition to planning for protection and preservation of assets, Millie works with families to establish strategies and processes to promote family governance, maintain family unity, and uphold family identity and integrity. Millie also consults with family businesses in their leadership transition, governance and strategy planning. For this purpose, Millie travels regularly to Asia and works in synergy with an extensive contact base of lawyers, bankers and offshore service providers for legal advice, trust, foundations and corporations.

Millie is fluent in English, Mandarin and Malay, and conversant in Cantonese and Hakka, as well as (minimally) Hokkien.