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Our survey focused on all of these areas, as well as some of the key practical considerations. Structuring and staffing a
family office of any guise can sometimes be challenging.
The family needs to come together to articulate and strategise their family goals and their vision of the future. They need
to allocate what assets the family office will manage. They need to hire family and external staff who are sufficiently
objective and expert in their different fields, whether this is investment management, administration, legal/trust,
accounting, technical/IT, or other.
The family office will need to appoint committees that monitor and advise on certain matters and a Board of Directors
that represents the broadest range of constituents of the family.
The whole area of trusts and trustees is also central to families seeking to preserve and transition wealth, and to keep
their affairs as private as possible, as key concerns have grown following the Panama Papers and Paradise Papers
debacles of recent years, leading to greater media scrutiny and sometimes public outcry against the ultra-wealthy.
As part of this initiative, technology adoption is essential, with the next generations of enterprise and family leaders
requiring new and additional skill sets, networks, and experience to manage both business and wealth.
The future wealth client will thrive in an era in which digital dominates, as there are new ranks of tech-savvy and
digitally connected investors and managers. Moreover, with proliferating sources of information at their fingertips,
HNW and UHNW families today demand curated product recommendations and targeted, valuable insights.
The findings of our survey, combined with some private, thought leadership discussions we have held this year, and our
body of relationships and our perennial work within the Asia Pacific wealth management industry have all co-mingled
to help produce this report, which is designed not as a guide to the creation or management of a family office, but to
highlight the many exciting challenges and developments taking place in the family office space globally, and more
specifically in Asia.
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