Family offices fall into two main categories: Single Family Office (SFO) and Multi Family Office (MFO). Regardless of type, they place great emphasis on independence and consistently prioritize the interests of the family or client.
Family offices are different from the private banks, securities firms, and retail banks that the general public commonly encounters. In addition to a relatively higher service threshold, family offices emphasize alignment with client objectives and help clients achieve asset growth and wealth succession. Their service scope covers independent asset management, family wealth insurance, overseas residency and citizenship planning, trusts, family governance, and succession planning. At the top of the wealth services chain, family offices often act as coordinators, bringing together various professional institutions to implement the family's overall objectives.
In the wealth services industry, different institutions show clear hierarchical differences in entry thresholds, service positioning, and profit models.
Retail banks serving the general public have the lowest service threshold, mainly providing basic day-to-day banking services and suitable for mass-market money management needs.
Securities firms have a higher service threshold and focus more on securities trading and standardized asset services, mostly serving investors with a certain amount of accumulated assets.
Private banks have an even higher service threshold, usually targeting high-net-worth individuals with assets of USD 50 million or more. Their core business mainly involves selling the institution's own financial products and supporting services, with revenue primarily from transaction fees, product management fees, and interest spreads.
Family offices are at the very top of the entire wealth services system, with service thresholds generally above USD 50 million in assets. They serve entirely from the client's standpoint and are deeply aligned with the family's long-term interests. Their core objective is to help assets grow steadily and achieve multi-generational succession. Their services cover independent asset management, wealth insurance allocation, overseas residency and citizenship planning, trust structuring, family governance, succession planning, and other comprehensive services. Returns are usually linked to the client's asset scale and overall investment performance.
Through practical scenarios, we can intuitively understand the core positioning differences between private banks and family offices—they are not a matter of superiority or inferiority, but of different service standpoints and profit logic; in the wealth management system, they are more complementary.
Family offices stand on the buy side, with the core objective of long-term steady appreciation and succession of family assets. They flexibly adjust the overall investment strategy according to real-time market conditions. If market conditions are weak, family offices will prioritize recommending higher cash positions, cautious deployment, and actively avoiding systemic risks.
Private banks, as suppliers of financial products and services, have their own mature business systems and operating logic, with revenue mainly from transaction fees, product management fees, and other sources. During periods of market volatility, private banks also provide clients with risk warnings and asset allocation advice, while continuing to offer diverse investment choices based on their own product pools and service frameworks. The two have different service starting points and role positioning, each suited to wealth management needs at different stages.
Drawing on industry history and the development of family offices in Asia, clients who need family office services usually have the following characteristics:
High family wealth scale: net assets mostly reach USD 10 million or above (a common industry reference threshold).
Diversified asset structure: high-net-worth families often hold equities, bonds, real estate, private equity, and other assets, requiring a professional team for unified management and coordination.
Complex financial and tax situations: many family businesses span multiple regions, with assets distributed across different jurisdictions, giving rise to a series of complex issues such as cross-border taxation.
Facing succession and wealth transfer issues: many first-generation entrepreneurs are facing succession challenges: the next generation may not be willing to take over the business; if they are willing to take over, supporting arrangements for cross-generational succession must be made in advance. At the same time, structural arrangements are needed to isolate wealth risks brought by the next generation's marriage or bad habits, reducing the possibility of a significant loss of family wealth.
Emphasis on asset privacy and security protection: families with substantial wealth generally want risk isolation for various assets held in diversified arrangements and need comprehensive mechanisms to protect family asset security.
Pursuit of family governance and cultural inheritance: beyond wealth transfer, some families also wish to pass family values and governance principles to the next generation, which may include allocating assets for philanthropy and charitable causes.
In summary, those who need family office services generally hold large-scale and complex assets. They rely on professional teams to handle various customized financial issues and achieve the core objectives of protecting family assets and completing cross-generational succession.