With wealthy families and the professionals who serve them continuing to perform a mass exodus of Hong Kong, the government is setting its sights on Family Offices a little further afield to improve its status as a Family Office hub.

As Hong Kong’s international reputation declines, the government are putting an emphasis on Family Offices as a key performance indicator for economic growth but with Family Offices exiting the country at an alarming speed and opting for its rival Singapore, Hong Kong has its work cut out.

Last October we reported that the Hong Kong government was rolling out a red carpet to Family Offices. The Legislative Council had passed a law for companies to set up Limited Partnerships, a popular format for Family Offices which was soon followed by the establishment of the Family Office Association (FOA) led by five of Hong Kong’s largest Family Offices.

Weeks later, the government agency InvestHK introduced a portal to provide key information for Family Offices while the Securities and Future Commissions agency issued guidance on Family Office licensing.

A year on and InvestHK are taking this one step further by sending their staff to Abu Dhabi and Dubai to recruit new Family Offices to their shorelines. The attraction, they hope, will come in the form of a newly devised plan for tax exemptions for certain Family Offices, following in the footsteps of Singapore who offered the same incentive some time ago.

With Hong Kong’s biggest rival some two years ahead, will this be enough?

The Hong Kong government is targeting 200 Family Offices to be in motion by the end of 2025. As of 2020 however, Singapore was home to more than 400 Single Family Offices with this number growing by the day. Asia’s second richest man, Mukesh Ambani is the latest billionaire to look to the Garden City for a home for his Family Office joining the likes of Sergey Brin, Li Ka-Shing, James Dyson and Ray Dalio who with a collective net worth of more than $140BN decided that Singapore was the number one destination for Family Offices.

Hong Kong must be prepared to convince the crowds of its international standing as a Family Office hub as the latest ranking of the Global Financial Centres Index showed Hong Kong had fallen to fourth place, overtaken by Singapore in third and its declining financial status is continuing to be blamed on its draconian coronavirus measures while other developing countries were learning to co-exist with the virus and its National Security Law.

Hong Kong has not only its own reputation to contend with but existing plans already in place within Middle Eastern hubs such as Dubai promoting its own financial epicentre for Family Offices. Dubai has recently welcomed many European expats in the wake of the Russia-Ukraine conflict and the number of Family Offices in the region has continued to grow.

Do you anticipate Family Offices making a move from the Middle East to Hong Kong? Join the conversation and download our free Family Office in Asia report which we created with InvestHK and the Monetary Authority of Singapore.