Terms of Service

These terms govern the professional services HainanInc Advisory Group provides to clients. They apply together with the engagement letter issued for each piece of work; where the two differ, the engagement letter prevails for that engagement.

Use of this website is governed separately by our Website Terms of Use. These terms concern the engagement, not the site.

HainanInc Advisory Group is an independent corporate advisory practice. We are not a bank, a broker-dealer, a law firm, an accountancy firm holding statutory audit rights, or a registered investment adviser, and we do not hold client money. Where an engagement requires services that are reserved to a licensed profession, we scope that work to a qualified provider and coordinate with them rather than performing it ourselves.

Material published on this website or distributed as general commentary is exactly that: general. It describes how a regime works in the ordinary case, at the date of publication, and it cannot account for your structure, your timing or your commercial objectives.

It is not legal, tax, accounting, investment or immigration advice, and no relationship between us arises from your reading it. Advice is given only under a signed engagement letter, to the party named in it, for the purpose stated in it.

Each engagement letter sets out what we will do, what we will deliver, and what falls outside the work. Anything not described there is out of scope. If the scope needs to change, we agree the change in writing before doing the work — we will not carry out unscoped work and invoice for it afterwards.

Where an engagement depends on a filing, approval or registration granted by an authority, we are responsible for preparing and submitting it properly and on time. We cannot be responsible for the decision itself, or for how long an authority takes to reach it.

Several of the services in our catalogue are licensed or filed activities under PRC law, and the licence attaches to the entity performing the work rather than to whoever the client contracts with. Where HainanInc does not itself hold the relevant licence, the work is performed by a licensed provider we select, instruct and supervise, and we act as your point of contact and coordinator rather than as the performing party. The service page for each such engagement names the licence concerned and states which part of the work is ours.

This is a statement about who does what, not a disclaimer of responsibility for the outcome. We remain responsible for selecting a provider that holds the relevant registration, for scoping the work, for reviewing the output before it is submitted, and for the engagement as a whole. What we do not do is hold ourselves out as performing an activity we are not licensed to perform.

Where an engagement depends on a licensed provider's own assessment of what it may lawfully take on — most commonly under the statutory restrictions applying to labour dispatch — that assessment is theirs to make, and we will tell you before an engagement proceeds if it constrains what you asked for.

We are not a law firm, an accountancy firm holding statutory audit rights, a patent agency, a licensed investment adviser, or a registered fund manager. Accordingly we do not provide legal advice or legal opinions, act in litigation or arbitration, conduct statutory audits, prosecute patents or design rights, advise on investments or manage assets, or advise on succession and estate planning.

Where an engagement raises a question falling into any of those categories, we will say so and help you instruct an appropriately qualified firm. We will not offer a view on it ourselves, and nothing we provide should be relied on as though we had.

Our work depends on what you give us. Accordingly you agree to:

Fees are quoted per engagement following an initial assessment and are set out in the engagement letter. Where work is charged on a time basis, the applicable rates are stated there.

Government fees, notarial and legalisation costs, translation, courier and similar third-party costs are disbursements. They are passed through at cost and itemised separately from our fees. We do not mark them up.

Invoices are payable within the period stated on them. We may suspend work on an engagement where an invoice remains unpaid after we have given written notice and a reasonable opportunity to settle it; we will not do so where suspension would cause you to miss a statutory deadline without first telling you that is the consequence.

We treat information you give us as confidential and will not disclose it except: to those of our personnel and subcontractors who need it to deliver the engagement; where you instruct or authorise us to; where required by law, a court or a competent authority; or where necessary to establish or defend a legal claim.

This obligation survives the end of the engagement. It does not apply to information that is public through no act of ours, or that we already held without a duty of confidence.

We do not publish client names. Engagement examples published on this site are composite accounts drawn from work of a given type, with identifying details removed.

On payment of the fees for the relevant engagement, you may use the deliverables we produce for you for the purpose they were prepared for. We retain ownership of our own templates, know-how, working papers and methodologies, including anything of general application developed while carrying out the work.

Deliverables are prepared for you and for the stated purpose. They should not be provided to a third party as a basis for that party's decisions without our written agreement, and we accept no responsibility to anyone other than the client named in the engagement letter.

Nothing in these terms limits liability that cannot lawfully be limited, including liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, or for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation.

Subject to that, our aggregate liability arising out of or in connection with an engagement is limited to the fees paid by the client for that engagement. We are not liable for loss of profit, loss of business, loss of anticipated saving, or any indirect or consequential loss, however arising.

We are not liable for a loss to the extent it results from information that was inaccurate, incomplete or provided late, from a decision of an authority, or from a change in law or published practice occurring after our work was delivered.

A claim must be brought within two years of the date on which the client became aware, or ought reasonably to have become aware, of the circumstances giving rise to it.

An engagement runs from the date stated in the engagement letter until the work is complete or the engagement is terminated.

Either party may terminate on 30 days' written notice. Either party may terminate immediately where the other commits a material breach that is not remedied within 14 days of written notice, or becomes insolvent.

We may terminate immediately, and without further explanation than the law permits us to give, where continuing would put us in breach of an anti-money-laundering, sanctions or other legal obligation. Our AML and KYC Policy describes the circumstances in which this arises.

On termination you remain liable for fees and disbursements for work done and costs committed up to that date. We will hand over documents belonging to you and cooperate with an orderly transfer.

Neither party is liable for a failure to perform caused by an event beyond its reasonable control, including natural disaster, epidemic, armed conflict, industrial action, failure of public infrastructure, or an act of government. The affected party will notify the other promptly and both will act reasonably to limit the effect.

These terms are governed by the laws of the People's Republic of China. Any dispute arising out of or in connection with them that cannot be resolved through the escalation route described in our Client Service and Complaints policy shall be submitted to the courts of competent jurisdiction in Hainan Province.

We may amend these terms. The version applying to an engagement is the one in force when the engagement letter is signed, unless a change is required by law. The version number and date at the top of this page identify the current text.

Questions about these terms may be sent to enquiries@hainaninc.com, or by post to HainanInc Advisory Group, Fuxingcheng, Haikou, Hainan Free Trade Port, People's Republic of China.