Locating your office

Choosing where to locate your office and making the most of its offerings.

Regulation, taxation, access to a professional network, ease of recruiting and proximity to family and family business interests are all considerations when deciding where to establish a family office. The six family offices we interviewed were able to share insights into China, Hong Kong, Singapore, the United Kingdom and Switzerland. In recent years Singapore has emerged as a global hub for family offices, and many of the family offices we surveyed are located here, including two who relocated to Singapore from other countries.

A desire to do things differently, start fresh and locate the family office where most of the family’s incoming generation were located were all behind the Tsao Family Office’s physical and focal shift from Hong Kong to Singapore.

“We had to move the family office from Hong Kong to Singapore because the family office had been in Hong Kong for 44 years and my father ran it very differently. It didn't make sense to have it in Hong Kong anymore because most of our family were in Singapore,” says Dr Tsao.

The family also has satellite offices in Malaysia and Japan, for proximity to its direct and strategic assets—many in real estate—and for reasons of control.

“The regulatory regime [in Singapore] is conducive and strikes the right balance of regulation, governance and business friendliness. The ecosystem of service providers is well developed, the pool of investment talent is growing, and the network of fellow investors is deepening.”

Bryan Goh, CEO/CIO, Tsao Family Office

“One of the benefits of running an office out of Singapore is that it's so easy to make investments all around the world and the flow of money is very easy. That makes it a very desirable place to work,” agrees Dr Tsao.

“Philanthropy is a little bit more limited to national interests because in Singapore, if you want to donate philanthropically and receive tax benefits then in most cases, the donation must be made in Singapore,” Dr Tsao adds.

 

Heinrich Jessen also strategically chose Singapore as the site for his new family office, after observing the style of the decades-old Swiss family office established by his predecessors.

The family still has its original single-family office in Switzerland. It was established there by previous generations as its tax laws were more favorable than those in Denmark. Jessen describes it as “more cumbersome and bureaucratic” than his experience of a family office in Singapore, and less proximate to where he lives and works.

“From a business perspective, we operate across the entire ASEAN region. It’s easier to recruit senior leaders here in Singapore than in other countries in the region, and of course it's preferable to be in Singapore, from a legal, holding structure and taxation point of view.”

The shift was also aligned with the third-generation businessman’s conclusions about his identity and lifestyle.


“We're extremely proud of our roots in Denmark and Germany, but after a thoughtful process I decided to change my nationality to become Singaporean. It’s a society that's very open to people from anywhere in the world. Most Singaporeans are descendants of people who emigrated here from elsewhere only a few generations ago; it's my home,” says Jessen, who spent his childhood in Singapore.

According to Alexander Scott of single-family office Applerigg, regulation, talent and opportunity are three considerations when planning where to centre your family office.

“If the family isn’t located in a financial centre and is thinking of setting up a family office, then you're more likely to have a better pool of talent to recruit from if you go to where the money is rather than where the family is,” says Scott, who founded his family’s family office in 1996.

“You want to be in a place where there's a strong regulatory environment that oversees an appropriate, professional financial sector, which allows a family office to operate effectively.

 

“But your decision about location should also be about where the talent resides, as that’s where you're going to find good people to work for you, and there are more to choose from the major financial centres.”

Alexander Scott, Founder, Applerigg

Proximity to clients, advisors, banks, networks, and industry events are other things to consider.

The taxation, recruitment and investment environments in Hong Kong and Beijing, where HT Capital has located its two family offices, are quite different, says Margaret Zhao.

Zhao has observed an “information gap” between Hong Kong and Beijing that impacts the family’s investment focus in each location.

“In Hong Kong, the information is all about hedge funds because there are a lot of hedge fund managers in Hong Kong. Cryptocurrency is also very big there. Whereas in China, the environment is more about exciting new private equity fields.”

Personal and company tax rates are much lower in Hong Kong than in China. But other costs—specifically rent and talent, are significantly higher.





“In Hong Kong, the cost of human resources is a lot higher [than in Beijing], but the talent is trained in the big banks, and we’re finding it easier to recruit quality people. In Beijing it can be challenging to find the right fit.”