Demand for family offices in the Asia-Pacific region is expected to rise as the number of multi-millionaires and billionaires in the region continues to grow at a rapid pace, a Wealth-X report said.
Family offices refer to small financial firms that provide advisory or asset management to ultra-high net worth individuals and their families.
Wealth-X report said Asia accounted for 30 percent of the net increase of global billionaires wealth last year, registering 52 new billionaires in 2014, with 33 coming from China.
The rise in the number of billionaires in Asia is expected to also push the demand for family offices as families realize the importance of professionalizing their wealth management needs, industry players said.
“As families of the ultra-high net worth space mature, they do realise that it is very important for them to professionalise their wealth management needs,” Koh Chin Chin, executive director of Family Advisory Asia Pacific at UBS AG, told ChannelNewsAsia.
In Asia, the family office sector is still small compared to that of the private banks and wealth managers.
A UBS survey showed that family offices in the Asia Pacific region posted an average of USD480m AUM in 2013, with family offices managing over USD20bn in private wealth. – BusinessNewsAsia.com
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