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Building family offices to last

    • Setting up a family office is just the first step of a long journey for one that’s being built to last.
    • Setting up a family office is just the first step of a long journey for one that’s being built to last. Pixabay
    Published Fri, May 5, 2023 · 02:00 PM

    THE exponential growth of the burgeoning family office space in Singapore has captured global attention. Data from Singapore’s Economic Development Board showed that family offices in the country grew fivefold between 2017 and 2019. In 2020, the number of family offices in Singapore was around 400, and the latest figures indicate that more than 800 family offices were established in the Republic by end-2022. With the world’s billionaire population expected to grow at a global average of close to 34 per cent and a third of them from Asia-Pacific, this pace is likely to continue.

    Against this exciting backdrop of rapid growth and wealth influx, it is easy to rest on our laurels and celebrate Singapore’s success as the jurisdiction of choice for family offices. In truth, setting up a family office is just the first step of a long journey for one that is being built to last.

    Most newly-established family offices we come across lack any form of a formal governance framework. Investment decisions are often made randomly without a family-aligned investment policy statement. There is no agreed investment overview process, there are no set parameters in terms of asset or geographical allocation, currency or leverage exposure. This is counter-intuitive to what one would expect in terms of managing shared family wealth with an intergenerational legacy agenda.

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