As the race for talent intensifies, employee retention has become more important than ever, especially for Family Offices.

The clients of Family Offices are the ultra-rich who expect a high degree of privacy around their financial dealings. Those expectations, however, make it difficult for Family Offices to recruit the high-calibre professionals their clients deserve.

Those professions often come from large and prestigious companies with consistent compensation structures. That can make it difficult for Family Offices, which usually have fewer than a dozen staff members, to manage a similar degree of compensation management.

We believe that as the Family Office industry matures and grows, compensation should no longer be a product of guesswork but rather, it should be built on research.

With that in mind, and in collaboration with KPMG Private Enterprise, we created the Global Family Office Compensation Benchmark Report. The 115-page report comprehensively covers all aspects of Family Offices and their recruitment needs, including regional-specific data so Family Offices from across the world can better understand the compensation benchmarks in their respective jurisdictions.

Family Offices in Asia

Compared to their global counterparts, the Family Office industry in Asia is still in its nascent stage. Only 39% of Asian Family Offices have operated for over 10 years in the region, as opposed to over 60% in the UK and the USA. That being said, we have seen a boom in Family Offices moving to Asia, especially Hong Kong and Singapore as they gained traction in being the ideal destination for Family Offices in recent years.

Some of our findings from the report include:

  • Composition

We found that 68% of Family Offices in Asia have less than 10 employees. This is an indication of the nascency of the industry in the region.

According to our survey responses, we found that Family Office CEOs in Asia are exclusively male and 89% of Family Office professionals are male. This shows that the gender inequality gap and gender diversity are pressing issues in the region.

  • Compensation

According to our findings, the average salary range of Family Office CEOs in Asia is very wide, it ranges from SGD$158k to 500k with an additional bonus of 21-30%.

One of the most effective measures of retaining employees, especially investment professionals, is providing them with a long-term incentive plan (LTIP). However, we found that Asian Family Offices have only offered these to 11% of their employees. LTIPs are crucial to retain and incentivise key employees.

  • Benefits

Employees worldwide increasingly expect a better work-life balance and more tangible benefits. However, we found that only 64% of Family Office professionals in Asia are allowed to work remotely, the lowest globally. Common employee benefits include private health care(46%), travel allowance(18%) and pension scheme(14%). We believe there is room for improvement when it comes to employee benefits.

Above are three of our findings that show the current compensation and benefits structure in Asia for key Family Office employees, and in fact ideally boosting them to above the average.

Read our 2023 Global Family Office Compensation Benchmark report to find out more about how you can ensure your key employees not only stay with the company, but also remain committed and incentivised.

For a more tailored conversation about how Agreus can help with your Family Office recruitment needs, contact us today.