Wealthy families in Asia have enough investing opportunities today. Technological changes and shifting risk are creating the need of having a more operational family office. This important for the future generations of these family offices, as reported by finews.asia.
“The need to increase professionalism in managing the family’s affairs and creating a family office, with employees dedicated to the various tasks, is a natural step for Asia’s high wealth family groups. As families mature, the focus usually shifts beyond the conventional pursuit of capital growth to include philanthropy, other social causes or special interests,” said Ian Burgess, EY Asia-Pacific family enterprise leader, at the launch of the report ,“The Asian Family Office: Key to Intergeneration Planning.”
The handover of family legacy, values and financial management is important as well. This is done to avoid conflicts between the different generations of the family.
This is a pretty complex process and has many faces to it. This requires professionalism and qualified/trusted advisory, knowledge of the market and while also keeping in mind the goals and objectives of the family.
The next generation are looking to transform their family offices to a more of an institution kind. They are hiring professionals and people who have worked in sophisticated financial companies, said Desmond Teo, EY Asia-Pacific financial services growth markets leader.
The concept of professional family offices in Asia are still in a Nascent stage.
A joint report suggests such Asian families that are looking to become more professional, the following –
• Align their structure for wealth planning.
• Transparency is key and compliance is needed across all jurisdictions.
• The management of sharing of financial information across all sources should be done with a bird’s eye view.
• The structure should be checked for sustainability for the long run i.e. for future generations, and not just for the next 5 years or decade.
