Rich Chinese and other Asians are increasingly seeking more control of their wealth, driving a rapid rise in the number of so-called family offices, or private investment vehicles, being set up in Hong Kong and Singapore.
As the wealthy target greater investment diversification and as business owners hand over the reins to successors, family offices are sprouting in the Asian financial hubs, taking advantage of incentives, such as tax breaks and residency, being offered.
The family office is a relatively new concept in Asia, with less than 500 such entities, compared with thousands in the West. Family offices offer a one-stop solution to managing the wealth of the rich, including investments, charitable giving, taxation and wealth transfer.
Staffed by bankers, fund managers, lawyers and tax practitioners, some even provide overseas private schooling and travel arrangements as add-on services.
“This year the activity for setting up family offices is definitely more,” said Lee Wong, Swiss private bank Lombard Odier Asia Ltd’s head of family services. “The growth of family offices in Asia should continue on its current trajectory.”
Asia-Pacific had 814 billionaires at the end of last year, accounting for 38 percent of the global billionaire population, with China minting two new billionaires every week, a report by UBS Group AG and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC) said last month.
That momentum was aided by the boom in Hong Kong for initial public offerings, which saw a record US$27.7 billion raised in the first nine months of last year mostly by Chinese tech firms, turning many founders into millionaires and billionaires.
Six private bankers on average estimated the number of new family offices in Asia had risen 15 percent in the first three quarters of this year from a year earlier.
This could pick up pace with a worldwide wealth transition of US$3.4 trillion expected over the next two decades, as per the UBS/PwC report.
Asian family offices are evolving from being just investment-focused to offering a platform for dispute resolution and succession planning, as the new generation in the family-owned businesses expand into new areas, bankers said.
Buoyed by the growth prospects, private bank units of global firms, including Citigroup Inc, Credit Suisse AG, HSBC Holdings PLC and UBS, are looking to expand family office services, headhunters and bankers said.
Stephen Campbell, chairman of the global family office group at Citi Private Bank, which serves more than 1,500 family offices globally, said the bank had seen “dramatic growth” in the number of its clients, including in Asia.
Citi plans to make a new Hong Kong-based hire in its Asia-Pacific family offices team, he said.
Credit Suisse’s Asia-Pacific head of wealth planning Bernard Fung said that due to the surging demand from North Asia for family offices, the bank would set up a team for this service in Hong Kong by the first quarter of next year, adding to its Singapore hub.
“Offshore Chinese wealth will continue to grow, so family offices business is going to be a multiyear trend,” said Ivan Wong, head of investment services and product solutions for Asia Pacific at HSBC Private Bank.
HSBC Asia private bank is to add 700 people by 2022, and some of those new hires would focus on family office clients, he said.
UBS declined to comment.
Some of the regional financial firms are also looking to grab a bigger share of the business.
Bank of Singapore Ltd (新加坡銀行) plans to hire six more bankers for a team set up in May to provide support to independent asset managers, including family offices in Hong Kong, said Derrick Tan (陳學彬), its global market head of Greater China and North Asia.
The increased activity is also being helped by tax exemptions and other incentives offered by Hong Kong and Singapore.
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