Julius Baer Switzerland, in cooperation with PwC Switzerland, released the 2025 Julius Baer Family Barometer, revealing a trend of intergenerational transformation. Wealthy families are no longer limited to wealth inheritance, but are focusing more on creating lasting family legacies, a sense of family mission, and resilience, while leveraging the family office model to create a strategic hub that goes beyond administrative functions.
Amidst the diversification of the global landscape, wealthy families are also ensuring robust and values-aligned wealth management strategies by strengthening collaborations with trusted advisors. However, globally, only 28.6% of ultra-high-net-worth families have established a unified vision, and 55.8% of families experience varying degrees of internal disagreement.
● Significant Growth in Single Family Offices
For Asian wealthy families, building a family legacy has become one of their top three priorities. As Hong Kong and Singapore jointly become regional hubs for family offices in Asia, the number of single family offices (SFOs) has grown significantly. As of 2024, Singapore has established over 2,000 family offices (a year-on-year growth of 43%); Hong Kong boasts more than 2,700. In Asia, 74% of families served by family offices choose the single family office model.
● Many Outsource Liquid Asset Management Functions
The cost and complexity of establishing a dedicated family office remain major obstacles, prompting families to consider hybrid and collaborative family office models. In Asia, the professionalization of family office structures has continued to progress, with families outsourcing functions such as liquid asset management (73%) and investment management (63%) while retaining core control over wealth and succession planning as well as philanthropic advisory. Notably, Asia also leads globally in outsourcing cybersecurity functions (48%).
The report notes that Hong Kong and Singapore remain the main locations for family offices in Asia, both featuring comprehensive infrastructure and clear regulatory frameworks. Singapore's advantages include political stability, legal certainty, and economic attractiveness, continuously drawing families seeking a strategic base. Meanwhile, Hong Kong's mature financial ecosystem and regional market access advantage attract ultra-high-net-worth individuals from across Asia.