As Asian private wealth becomes more international, mobile and multi-generational, families are increasingly looking for fiduciary partners that can support complex structures over long periods of time. For Marilyn See, General Manager and Head of Business Development at Trident Trust, that need places a premium on stability, technical depth, jurisdictional reach and continuity of service.
Trident Trust’s proposition is built around its position as an independent international trust company, with a global footprint and long-standing experience in administering complex private client and fund structures. For families with assets, businesses and family members across multiple jurisdictions, Marilyn argues that the role of the trustee is no longer only administrative. It is increasingly tied to governance, succession, transparency and the professionalisation of wealth.
The interview was originally featured on the Hubbis website as part of its coverage of the Hubbis India Wealth Management Forum 2026.
Key Takeaways
Trident Trust’s independence is central to its proposition: Marilyn points to the firm’s privately held structure as an important source of stability, supporting long-term planning and continuity in client relationships.
Complex families need cross-border fiduciary capability: Trident Trust works with private clients and professional fund managers across international financial hubs, including Singapore, Hong Kong, Jersey, BVI, Switzerland and the US.
Indian families are increasingly international: Many have businesses, assets and family members across several jurisdictions, creating a need for trust, family office and holding structures that can support global lives.
Family offices are becoming a tool for professionalisation: As families expand across generations, more are looking for structured platforms to manage family wealth, decision-making and responsibilities.
Next-generation expectations are changing service delivery: First-generation clients often value direct human contact, while the next generation expects digital access, faster response and more efficient interaction.
Transparency will define future planning: Marilyn believes clients and advisers need to prepare for a world in which information exchange and regulatory scrutiny should be provided for, rather than to be avoided or circumvented.
The trust industry remains human-led: Technology can improve efficiency, but Marilyn does not believe AI can replace the judgement, accountability and trust required in fiduciary work.
Stability as a Fiduciary Advantage
Trident Trust is an independent international trust company with over 30 offices in 25 jurisdictions worldwide, spanning North America, parts of Europe, the Caribbean and Asia, including Singapore and Hong Kong. Its work covers private client fiduciary services as well as fund administration for professional fund managers.
For Marilyn, the firm’s core differentiator is not only its jurisdictional reach, but the stability behind it. Families establishing trust structures are often planning over decades, and sometimes across generations. That makes continuity of ownership, management and team relationships more important than it may appear at the outset.
“Our USP is certainly our stability as an organisation and as a team,” Marilyn says. “It is also the expertise we have in administering and dealing with quite complex client requirements.”
That stability is reinforced by Trident Trust’s privately held structure. Marilyn draws a distinction between firms with long-term private ownership and parts of the industry that have seen more frequent ownership change, including private equity-backed consolidation.
For families that spend significant time selecting trustees and building trust with them, high turnover can become a real concern. A fiduciary relationship is not designed to be transactional. It requires familiarity with family history, asset structures, personalities, intentions and long-term planning objectives.
“Clients set up trusts for very long-term planning,” Marilyn says. “They spend a lot of time getting to know their trustees, so if there is high turnover or constant change, that becomes an issue.”
In that context, Trident Trust’s ownership and management stability allows the firm to plan with a longer horizon. It also supports consistency in the servicing team, which Marilyn sees as important for both clients and staff.
“Because we are privately held, we tend to have more stability in the shareholding structure and fewer changes from a management perspective,” she says. “That allows us to plan and grow in a consistent manner, with a much longer-term horizon.”
Supporting International Families
The need for cross-border fiduciary support is particularly visible among Indian ultra-high net worth families. Marilyn notes that many Indian families are highly international, with operating businesses, holding structures and family members spread across multiple regions.
Many remain closely connected to the original family business, but the next generation may be living, studying or working in Switzerland, the UK, the US, Singapore, Hong Kong or the UAE. That mobility creates planning requirements around governance, asset holding, succession and access to international structures.
Marilyn gives the example of Indian families using trusts for overseas family members and business assets held through jurisdictions such as Singapore or Hong Kong. Another example is the establishment of family offices in Asia, where the objective is to create a more professional platform for managing family wealth. A third example is an Indian shipping family, long established outside India, placing a shipping business into a private trust company structure administered by Trident Trust.
For Marilyn, these examples reflect a wider shift. As families grow larger, more geographically dispersed and more complex, informal arrangements become harder to sustain.
The family office discussion is part of that same trend. For some families, the family office becomes a way to bring greater structure to investment management, governance, reporting and decision-making across different branches of the family.
“As families become bigger, they look for a more structured way to deal with family wealth for different family members,” Marilyn says. “The family office offers a good platform for the professionalisation of family wealth management.”
Jurisdictional choice depends on the family’s objectives. Hong Kong may appeal because of convenience and ease of establishment. Singapore is often favoured for its regulatory framework. The UAE may be relevant because of proximity to family members or business interests.
In practice, families may not choose only one location. Marilyn says it is increasingly possible to see Indian families with Hong Kong holding entities, Singapore family offices and family members based in the UAE.
Key Priorities
Marilyn’s first priority is sustainable growth. For Trident Trust, that means expanding the business without weakening the service standards that underpin long-term fiduciary relationships.
“Our top priority is to grow the business in a sustainable manner,” she says. “And sustainable means without compromising client service standards.”
The second priority is efficiency. This is not only an internal operating issue. It is also a client experience issue, particularly as more next-generation family members become involved in wealth structures.
Marilyn draws a clear distinction between how first-generation and next-generation clients often interact with advisers and service providers. First-generation clients may instinctively call someone directly and ask for a document, update or action. Next-generation clients are more likely to expect digital access, messaging, portal-based information and faster self-service.
The challenge for fiduciary firms is to improve systems and processes without losing the human judgement and relationship depth that clients still need. For Marilyn, the objective is not digitalisation for its own sake, but better alignment with how families now operate.
The third priority is staff development. The trust industry has grown quickly over the past seven to ten years, creating demand for experienced people who can manage complex relationships and structures.
“We have very good people, but everybody wants growth and progression,” Marilyn says. “The question is how to keep staff consistently engaged, still challenged, and feeling a sense of achievement and appreciation.”
Into The Future
For Marilyn, the future of fiduciary planning will be shaped by transparency. As regulatory expectations evolve and governments increase information exchange, clients will need to think differently about what good planning means.
In the past, some clients were highly focused on confidentiality and on what information would or would not be exchanged under different structures. Marilyn believes the industry needs to move towards a more realistic and durable model, where structures are designed to withstand scrutiny rather than depend on opacity.
“The way we look at it is that clients should plan as though everything is on the table,” she says. “If everything is visible, it should still be something they are able to sleep at night with.”
That does not mean privacy is irrelevant. It means fiduciary planning must be compliant, current, properly documented and aligned with the client’s long-term objectives. Structures should not create problems for the next generation because information was incomplete, outdated or difficult to explain.
Marilyn sees this as especially important in succession. If first-generation wealth creators have not kept structures updated and compliant, the next generation may inherit complexity without clarity. That can create practical, legal and emotional problems at precisely the point when families need continuity most.
“The issue is when things are kept like skeletons in the cabinet,” she says. “When the first generation is no longer around, the next generation may not be in a position to inherit properly because things were not kept updated and compliant.”
For trustees, the implication is clear. The industry will need to help clients prepare for an era in which transparency is not a threat to good planning, but a basic condition of it.
Getting Personal with Marilyn See
Marilyn was born and educated in Singapore. She studied at Singapore Management University, where she completed a double degree in business management and accounting.
Before entering the structuring and fiduciary world, Marilyn spent time as a management consultant and as a private banker. She sees both experiences as important to her current role. Consulting taught her to understand client requirements quickly and explain complex information in a way that clients can absorb. Private banking gave her direct exposure to client relationships and the realities of wealth management.
Marilyn also sees a strong future for young people in the trust industry. While AI may change parts of financial services, she does not believe fiduciary work can be fully automated. Trust structures deal with family responsibility, next-generation care, judgement and accountability. Those are not areas where clients are likely to rely entirely on machines.
“This is one of the few industries that cannot be replaced by AI entirely,” she says. “You are counting on someone to take care of your next generation. I would not leave my wealth with AI to decide when to distribute it to my children if my husband and I were no longer around.”
For younger professionals looking for an AI-resilient career, Marilyn believes fiduciary services offer both growth and long-term relevance. The industry needs more talent, particularly as families become more complex and as succession planning becomes more urgent across Asia.
“We are always looking for AI-proof areas for young people,” she says. “This is certainly an area of growth, and an area where we need more talented young people to join us.”