Asian Family Office Succession Gap Emerges as Wealth Transfers Approach

Asian family office succession planning is failing to keep pace with anticipated intergenerational wealth transfers, according to research from the Wealth Management Institute.

Its study of 146 family offices found that 71% plan to transfer wealth to future generations, but only 49% believe their successors are prepared to engage effectively with the family office.

Cross-generational involvement appears to make a substantial difference.

Family offices where different generations participate in strategic or operational decisions were 6.5 times more likely to consider the next generation prepared.

Among offices where multiple generations participated in strategic decisions, 83% considered successors ready, compared with only 37% where decision-making remained concentrated with the senior generation.

Despite the scale of upcoming wealth transfers, just 35% of Asia-based respondents had a formal family-office leadership succession plan.

The study suggests hands-on involvement in family decision-making could be more effective in preparing successors than relying primarily on financial education.