Hong Kong ideally placed to be family office hub
- When looking for a friendly, experienced jurisdiction to help protect their wealth and legacies, the world’s richest need look no further than Hong Kong
The world’s ultra-wealthy have the smartest advisers to take care of their fortunes. But to be assured of legacies for their families, they still need a friendly jurisdiction to help protect their wealth.
Hong Kong is moving full steam ahead to become a premier family office hub. With its sophisticated financial services and banking sectors, it is uniquely placed to play such a role on a global scale.
In his first policy address, Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu said he aimed to attract at least 200 of the world’s top family offices to set up or expand their operations in the city by 2025.
That will go a long way in competing for business with Singapore, which has had a head start. The city state reportedly has about 400 such offices to help global wealthy families to invest their fortunes, and manage their succession planning and charity works.
A pro-LGBTQ Hong Kong would be more attractive to global talent
As a premier financial hub, Hong Kong already has the necessary infrastructure in place.
But as speakers said at the “Redefining Hong Kong Series: Global Family Office Hub” conference run by the South China Morning Post, there is a need for more investment products, tax incentives and international promotion to let the world know we are in business.
To these ends, the government’s InvestHK has set up a dedicated family office team. Despite restrictive pandemic measures, the team has helped 14 overseas family offices set up in Hong Kong in the past year, with another 50 in the pipeline.
The wealthiest from the Middle East and Europe have been targets, but the most obvious are those from the Greater Bay Area, where some 20,000 families qualify as “ultra-wealthy”, according to the Hurun Report, which keeps track of China’s richest people.
Guangdong, where nine of the 11 cities in the bay area are based, has the second-highest concentration with investible assets of more than 6 million yuan (HK$6.5 million), just shy of Beijing.
More cross-border financial links have been launched or are being enhanced in the bay area, such as after-sales services for insurance; the Wealth Management Connect scheme, which is modelled on the stock and bond connects; and diversified yuan-based investment products.
Regulators are also looking into non-fungible tokens and cryptocurrencies. The future in wealth management is bright.
