Over 70% of Asian families set to transfer wealth, but only half say next gen is ready for family office: report
Beyond shaping their assets’ future ownership, families need to do as much to develop their future stewards
[SINGAPORE] Around seven in 10 high-net-worth families are set to transfer wealth to their later generations, but only around half think the next generation is prepared to engage with the family office.
Hence, families need to spend as much effort developing their future stewards as structuring the future ownership of their assets. This is because having a succession plan does not equate to having a generation prepared to exercise stewardship, said the Wealth Management Institute (WMI) in its report published on Monday (Oct 5).
In fact, family offices that report cross-generational participation in strategic or operational decisions have 6.5 times the odds of viewing their next generation as prepared, compared with offices where this participation is absent.
The report, titled Stewardship by Design: Preparing Asia’s Next Generation for Leadership and Impact, said: “A succession plan can determine where wealth goes; stewardship development determines what happens when it gets there.”
The report drew on 146 survey responses collected by WMI in the first half of 2026, from family-office principals and professionals predominantly based in the Asia-Pacific, with Singapore as the principal hub.
WMI noted that the wider family enterprise to be inherited may be different from the one that the founder had built, and will likely require more than one successor.
Not every member of the next generation will lead the operating business, WMI said. Families that have sold their operating companies also no longer need the next generation to possess the capabilities required to run that particular business.
Thus, families should prepare the next generation for the enterprise they expect to own, not simply the business the founder happened to build.
“Families may need capable owners, governors, leaders, investors, philanthropists and convenors, rather than one successor expected to reproduce the previous generation,” it said.
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To do so, it is important for next-generation family members to have opportunities to make decisions, explain the reasoning behind those decisions, experience consequences and show that they can progressively be trusted with greater responsibility.
WMI noted four key elements to its suggested framework for developing stewards:
- Identity
- Responsibility
- Accountability and
- Legitimacy
“Identity” connects personal motivation with family purpose. “Responsibility” gives that motivation a practical expression. “Accountability” requires decisions to withstand review. “Legitimacy” develops as contributions become visible.
Nevertheless, WMI said not all forms of participation are equal. For example, participation in strategic decisions was more strongly associated with preparedness than operational or oversight exposure.
Within education and development, board and governance exposure also had the clearest association with preparedness.
Furthermore, preparing future stewards requires current stewards to evolve their roles, as continuity should be built across people, not around a replacement, WMI said.
Families seeking continuity over several generations also need to create a system in which today’s stewards can develop tomorrow’s.
WMI also warned against turning an informal, relationship-led family into a professionalised, rules-based one, given that there is no universal development model.
Instead, families should preserve the relationships and practices that make development meaningful, while adding the clarity required.
A key is to seek external advice, although only about a third (32 per cent) of WMI respondents identify external advice among the top three factors most often guiding family-office decisions.
Hence, families have the opportunity to bring in expertise that strengthens their ability to make consequential decisions across generations.
Meanwhile, families need to understand that renewal can sometimes mean deciding not to repeat an inherited practice, WMI said.
“The values behind an earlier contribution can endure even when changing circumstances point towards a different response,” the report noted. “The stewardship task is to understand the purpose behind what came before, and determine how that purpose remains relevant now.”
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