Family Office Services

A family office is an entity established to manage the wealth of high-net-worth individuals and their families. It supports wealthy families by providing specialized services in various areas such as investment management, trust, and estate planning, insurance, and risk management.

Singapore is an attractive location to set up family offices, trusts, and funds to manage family wealth, due to its well-developed financial infrastructure and attractive tax regime.

A Singapore family office can be used for immigration planning, may sponsor employment passes, or even be used as part of an application for permanent residency by high-net-worth family members under the Global Investor Programme. Singapore family office structures can typically be designed to be exempt from local securities law for the provision of fund management services and be exempted from income tax under various fund tax incentives.

SFOs cater to a single wealthy family. It is a family-owned business where a single entity manages all of the family’s assets. Single-family offices can take various forms, depending on a family’s actual wealth and makeup. They can specialize in investment services for a small family (in which case they are known as a private investment office or single-family investment firm) or offer a much broader range of services to a large, multi-generational family with a larger team.

The MFO extends the SFO concept to a variety of different families and other high-net-worth individuals. Functionally, a multi-family office provides the same service as a family office, but to more than one family or individual. Its scope of services may even be extended to include personal concierge services to clients, which handle personal matters and lifestyle needs

The following are some characteristics of family offices:

• A firm is entrusted with family assets, which are separated from natural persons.
• Only the shares of the holding company need to be transferred when assets are inherited.
• Investment management can be outsourced to independent professionals.
• Simplicity in operations.

Under the Securities and Futures Act, the SFO is not defined, nor is it the intention of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to license or regulate one. The Singapore government has offered generous licensing exemptions and tax benefits to family offices in order to promote their development.

We provide a one-stop comprehensive family office solution to high-net-worth individuals planning to set up family offices in Singapore, covering:

• Tax-efficient family office structure set up
• Tax-free fund and trust set up
• Bank and custody account opening
• Legal documentation for fund management services and compliance
• Annual virtual family office maintenance services