O.K. Lim's granddaughter fails to keep 3 insurance policies from creditors' reach

Court finds lack of evidence that her father intended to create trust before bankruptcy

- Grace Leong

The daughter of bankrupt former Hin Leong Trading director Lim Chee Meng failed in a bid to shield three AIA Singapore insurance policies worth over half a million dollars from being part of Mr Lim's bankruptcy estate.

Ms Michelle Lim Yan Yi, the granddaughter of Hin Leong founder Lim Oon Kuin, sought a High Court declaration that the three policies, worth over $521,000, should be ring-fenced from creditors' reach because they were held on trust for her benefit by her father, who was declared bankrupt in December 2024.

The three policies are part of a set of eight insurance policies with AIA that Mr Lim Chee Meng had taken out when Ms Lim was a minor, under which he was the policy owner and she was the named insured.

But High Court Judicial Commissioner Mohamed Faizal found there was a lack of evidence of an intention on Mr Lim's part, prior to his bankruptcy, to create a trust over the three policies for the sole benefit of his daughter.

He found that the documentary evidence relied on by Ms Lim was "either self-interested representations" or "mere assertions".

One document she relied on was an October 2021 letter from Mr Lim to ring-fence the eight policies from other assets that were subjected to a freezing order in a US$3.5 billion (S$4.45 billion) civil suit.