Is New York really the top jurisdiction for Family Offices?

This is a guest blog by Agreus US Team Head, Kay Shah. Join the conversation here.

From the Morgan’s to the Rockefeller’s, New York has always played home to some of the world’s most renown, wealthy and influential families.

In fact, New York is where it all began when the term Family Office was first coined by the family of J.P Morgan in 1838 and popularised by the Rockefellers some four decades on.

Its high density of investment firms, banks and financial talent have kept New York in prime position with Family Office Leaders claiming its high quality of living, physical location and time zone make it both accessible and attractive for trade and opportunity.

However, in 2021, Singapore began closing in on the top spot and it wasn’t the only marketplace to do so.

In July, Agreus revealed that New York was voted as the number one Family Office jurisdiction by 28% of Family Office Leaders. While that was perhaps unquestionable and contradictory to the question we pose in our title, what was phenomenal was that it was followed incredibly closely by 24% of leaders who voted for Singapore. The Garden City where 400 Family Offices have been established alongside the Global Asia Family Office Circle which aims to entice many more.

When asked where the Leaders of Global Family Offices might also open a second Family Office, just 17% opted for New York, beaten this time by 20% who voted for Singapore and 23% who opted for London.

Looking now to external data and in 2021 it was also revealed in the Forbes Billionaire Index that Beijing had more billionaires than any other city, cementing Asia as a new hub for Family Offices and overtaking New York as the former front runner.

But while this data concentrates on the global playing field, it does not take into account the many marketplaces within the USA taking a share of the Family Office pie. To offer three examples, Florida, Texas and Arizona have all seen a huge influx in affluent families looking to establish an office. With the three also boasting some of the lowest state taxes in America, one might question the role it plays in the conversation about Family Office location.

All three data sets also followed what was almost two years of the coronavirus pandemic. A plague that changed the world in many ways but the most prominent perhaps being the way we work. From behind a screen and away from the city.

New York has always been favoured for its rich talent pool and colourful array of professional services but with state taxes and work-life balance becoming more and more important to both professionals and the Family Offices they serve, will New York be able to retain its title as the number one hub for Family Offices?