SINGAPORE – Young heirs of family offices are clashing with founders over investment strategies as the next generation takes on bigger roles, a new study revealed.
The global study covering family members and senior executives working for family offices with total wealth of US$119.37 billion (S$152 billion) found 79 per cent reporting increased involvement from the younger generation in shaping investment strategies.
However, 97 per cent of the respondents said the priorities of the heirs differ from those of founders.
The study by Ocorian, a global provider of bespoke administration and fiduciary services to corporate, institutional and private investors, showed the major areas of contention include attitudes to private markets and digital assets.
In February, Ocorian commissioned independent research company PureProfile to interview 200 people in the family office sector, spanning 16 jurisdictions including the US, UK, Singapore, Hong Kong and the UAE.
The findings are not broken down by jurisdictions.
Fifty-one per cent said younger generations favour private markets, while 42 per cent identified investing in digital assets as an area of disagreement.
Thirty-nine per cent pointed to stronger interest among heirs in physical assets such as real estate and private aircraft.
Risk tolerance is another fault line, with 29 per cent saying younger generations have higher risk appetite.
Diverging views also extend to geopolitical issues, cited by 33 per cent of respondents, and even to the location of family offices.
The findings underscore mounting concerns around succession, with 98 per cent saying more needs to be done on succession planning.
About 12 per cent of respondents said they are not witnessing a natural transition of wealth and leadership.
Ms Ginny Goh, director of private clients at Ocorian in Singapore, said differing perspectives were inevitable as family wealth expands across generations.
“Succession planning is crucial in family offices as they grow and mature,” she said.
“As the family’s wealth expands and its priorities diversify, the need for a structured, forward-looking succession framework becomes even more essential.”
The wealth managers interviewed added that the war in Iran is driving the super-rich to open new branches of family offices around the world to manage risks created by energy shocks, tax changes and economic sanctions.
The ultra-high-net-worth clients are moving to rebalance as much as 20 per cent of portfolios in response to disruptions in oil markets and rising geopolitical tensions.
Global demand for family office structures is rising sharply globally as clients move to execute complex, cross-border changes, deVere Group’s chief executive Nigel Green said.
He said clients are not just reallocating assets but are restructuring how they own those assets, where they hold them, and how they make decisions.
The firm is seeing a growing pipeline of restructuring activity, including trust reconfiguration and holding company adjustments within a shorter time.
“What used to be multi-year planning is now being prepared and executed in phases over months,” Mr Green said.
Capital is increasingly being directed toward jurisdictions offering legal certainty, liquidity and political stability, while maintaining multi-jurisdictional frameworks to preserve flexibility and access across blocs, he said.
Investment focus is also shifting toward sectors positioned to benefit from structural change.
These include energy infrastructure, logistics and supply chain assets, alongside artificial intelligence and technology platforms supporting regional production and automation.
Private credit demand in these areas is rising as traditional financing tightens, he added.
The trend is also pushing forward succession and governance planning, with families bringing forward intergenerational wealth decisions to ensure structures remain robust under shifting geopolitical conditions.
Mr Green expects the shift towards multi-jurisdictional family office structures to persist as long as geopolitical risks remain elevated, and the global system continues to fragment into competing economic blocs.
By end-2024, Singapore had more than 2,000 single family offices (SFOs) that had been awarded tax incentives by the Monetary Authority of Singapore, while Hong Kong is estimated to have more than 2,700 SFOs.
