Hong Kong's 3,380 Family Offices Bet Big on the Great Wealth Handover

Hong Kong now hosts more than 3,380 single-family offices, a count that has grown 25 per cent in just two years, according to Joseph HL Chan, JP, Acting Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury of the HKSAR. Chan opened SCMP's "Redefining Hong Kong: Next Generation Wealth 2026" conference on September 21 at the JW Marriott Hotel Hong Kong with that figure, and the number frames the city's pitch: it wants to be Asia's operating base for the largest intergenerational wealth transfer in the region's history.

The timing matters. Asia's wealth holders are preparing to hand over fortunes built over decades, and Hong Kong is positioning itself as the place where that capital gets redeployed. Chan argued the city's case rests on fundamentals practitioners already know well: a common-law system, free flow of capital, a low-tax regime, and connectivity to both mainland China and global markets. He also flagged proposed tax concessions for alternative assets, including digital assets and green bonds, as the next lever to strengthen Hong Kong's role in generational wealth planning.

What does succession actually require?

The first panel, "From empire to ecosystem – Reimagining the Asian family enterprise," pushed past the usual investment-return talk. Panellists included Professor Gao Hao of Tsinghua University; Christina Gaw of Gaw Capital Partners; Sujoy Ghosh, chief executive officer of Sun Life Private Wealth; Professor Winnie Peng of HKUST; and Sapphire Wang, head of digital marketing and sales at E Fund HK.

Their core point: families now live, work and invest across multiple jurisdictions, and that complicates every handover. Legal structures and investment mandates aren't enough. Preparing successors demands judgment, confidence and shared values.

"Successful succession is therefore not simply a transfer of assets, but a transfer of confidence," Ghosh said. His practical prescription for the current generation: predecessors must act as mentors, helping successors understand not just how the wealth was created but how it can be responsibly redeployed.

The generational split is visible in portfolio preferences too. Younger family members are pushing for exposure to technology, healthcare, new geographies and alternative business models. Wang put the challenge facing successors in one line: "You can inherit a seat. You cannot inherit conviction."

Where legacy gets risky

A second panel, "The art of legacy and succession," examined how families preserve the cultural and emotional value of art and collectibles alongside their financial worth. The warning was concrete: collections can lose their meaning without careful ownership structures, documentation and stewardship.

Benjamin Cheng, chief executive officer of Howden Private Wealth, said families routinely miss the practical risks attached to valuable holdings. "Risk management as to holding such assets, be it art or something else... is often neglected," he said. For advisers, that's an open service gap.

A case study in radical redeployment

The sharpest example of transformation came from the fireside chat "Taking the helm at a turning point – Leading a family enterprise through transformative times." Carlo Pesenti, chairman and chief executive officer of Italmobiliare, spoke with Professor Emanuele Colonnelli about the firm's pivot from an 80-year-old cement conglomerate into a permanent capital vehicle.

The family exited cement amid concentration risk and environmental pressures. It then redeployed capital into healthcare, retail, food and energy, and used the strategic acquisition of Clessidra as an anchor investor to accelerate its ability to back high-quality Italian companies. That's a full redefinition of what the family business is, not a portfolio tweak.

The so-what

The through-line of the conference was blunt: Asia's next generation of wealth holders is inheriting far more than financial assets. It's inheriting responsibility for businesses, values, communities and future growth. For wealth managers, family offices and advisers in Hong Kong, the 25 per cent growth in single-family offices signals a market that's expanding fast, and the pending tax concessions on digital assets and green bonds could widen the product shelf those families demand next.

By Nathan Brooks