Azimut Executive Says Korea ‘Family Offices’ Are Often Just Private Banking Marketing

Azimut Investment Management’s Korea wealth head Kim Hyeong-guk said many Korea family offices are in practice expanded private-banking services rather than full institutional structures, arguing the country needs tax relief and a deeper investment ecosystem to build models comparable with Singapore.

He said securities firms began using the family-office label after the pandemic, but few clients have set up entities with dedicated governance and operating functions.

Kim pointed to Singapore’s incentives, including tax exemptions and work passes linked to minimum assets, as drivers of inbound wealth and the rise of single-family offices, and said families with KRW300bn–KRW500bn (USD207m-USD345m) or more can justify dedicated teams, while smaller fortunes may be better served by multi-family office models.