Thomas Ang, Global Head of Family Office Services, Wealth Management Division, Credit Suisse
You just have to ask yourself one very simple question, is the next generation involved in decision-making? It’s as simple as that. In Asia, not yet. Later this month, my firm, we launch our single-family office survey. We interviewed about 120 family offices from 50 countries, 30% are from Asia, managing about a hundred billion, half of which is managing less than half a billion– it’s more than half a billion. I’ll just give you two statistics pertaining to next generation. 53% of single-family offices find it hard to involve the next generation in decision-making, and if I focus on Asia, 61% of decision-making are made by a single family member, so no presence if I tell you that that’s typically the older generation. As far as investment committee is concerned, in Europe, 50% of family officers have some sort of a investment committee. In Asia, it’s 17%, and if I’m being critical, well-run investment committee, it’ll probably give you a heck out of 50%.
Thomas Ang, Global Head of Family Office Services, Wealth Management Division, Credit Suisse