Advisory fragmentation hampers wealth succession in Southeast Asia

Succession planning in Southeast Asia often breaks down at the point of implementation, where legal, tax and investment workstreams must be sequenced and coordinated across multiple advisers and stakeholders.

Dawn Fung, head of wealth planning for Southeast Asia at HSBC Private Bank, said the difficulty of turning planning into coordinated execution across multiple disciplines is the central problem facing families in the region. “The biggest disconnect is between intent and the actual execution,” she said.

Even where families adopt formal structures such as single family offices or multi-family offices, execution can break down when legal, tax and investment advisers operate independently rather than as part of a coordinated process. Fung said the underlying problem is one of integration across disciplines rather than any shortage of technical expertise.

Singapore has become the primary structuring hub for cross-border family wealth in the region. The number of single family offices awarded Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) tax incentives grew from 400 in 2020 to 1,400 by end-2023, reaching 1,650 in the first eight months of 2024, according to MAS. Even so, the pace of structuring has not resolved execution constraints, which Fung said remain rooted in coordination, timing and governance alignment.

Delayed structuring compresses execution windows

“A common gap is the lack of early separation between personal and business wealth,” Fung said, adding that families often begin succession planning only when a trigger event forces the issue, rather than embedding it early enough to allow decisions to be made gradually and in sequence.

When engagement is delayed, ownership transfer, governance design, liquidity planning and tax structuring must all be resolved within a compressed time-frame. Decisions that could have been tested and sequenced over several years become simultaneous, which reduces flexibility and concentrates execution risk. HSBC’s Family-owned businesses in Asia: Harmony through succession planning found that 81% of Singapore entrepreneurs want to keep their businesses in the family, yet 55% have no succession plan in place.

Business concentration limits diversification options

Ownership structures in many first-generation enterprises across the region remain heavily weighted toward operating businesses.

“We continue to see concentration risk, particularly among first-generation entrepreneurs where a significant portion of wealth is tied to operating businesses,” Fung said. This limits liquidity options and makes it difficult to transfer ownership without affecting operational stability, so succession planning is often deferred until a liquidity event or business transition creates a natural window for restructuring.

Fung said the factors that slow diversification are both practical and behavioural. Business footprint, shareholder arrangements and multi-jurisdictional legal and tax considerations all constrain timing on the practical side. On the behavioural side, founders often retain a strong attachment to existing markets and operating models, and can be reluctant to allocate to unfamiliar asset classes even where the rationale for broadening is understood.

Cross-border complexity adds coordination load

HSBC’s Global Entrepreneurial Wealth Report shows that 63% of Singapore entrepreneurs operate across multiple markets, above the global average, while 56% hold residency in more than one country. Fung said families that relocate or expand into a new jurisdiction often do so without sufficient time to plan or fully understand the implications, requiring a shift from a single-market approach to one that accounts for the family’s objectives, structures and obligations across multiple systems. “Structuring does not always fully account for multiple jurisdictions, and coordination across advisers can be fragmented, which creates complexity during implementation,” she said.

Decisions made in one jurisdiction often require modification in another, producing iterative adjustments rather than linear execution. When adviser coordination is weak, these adjustments accumulate and extend timelines significantly.

Governance gaps slow decision-making

HSBC research shows 74% of Singapore entrepreneurs believe the next generation is capable of managing wealth, yet 52% are uncertain whether they want to take over the business. Fung said this divergence between confidence in capability and uncertainty about willingness tends to slow the formalisation of succession decisions, compounded by what she described as a human dimension in the execution gap: comfort with the status quo and the difficulty of relinquishing control across generations. 

“The challenge is not just putting structures in place but ensuring alignment within families and preparing the next generation to take on ownership and decision-making responsibilities,” she said. When that alignment is absent, families often defer, leaving governance frameworks incomplete or only partially implemented.

Even where families reach internal alignment, execution can still stall at the advisory level. Legal, tax, investment and fiduciary advisers typically operate independently, producing technically sound but operationally disconnected outputs. “Bridging this gap typically requires a coordinated advisory approach and bringing the right specialist input at the right time,” Fung said. When sequencing is left to the family rather than managed across advisers, different workstreams progress at different speeds and bottlenecks emerge even where there is broad agreement on direction.

Planning conversations are broadening, but execution gaps persist

Wealth planning conversations in the region have evolved over the past five years. Fung said the focus has shifted from technical structuring toward governance, legacy and continuity, with families engaging earlier and showing greater willingness to involve the next generation in planning discussions. HSBC data shows only 33% of Singapore entrepreneurs find it difficult to talk about money with their heirs, and families are placing increasing emphasis on preserving values and governance consistency across generations alongside financial outcomes.

These behavioural shifts have not, however, resolved the underlying execution challenges. When coordination across advisers, jurisdictions and timelines remains weak, improved intent does not translate into improved outcomes.

Advisory sophistication has yet to close implementation gap

Fung said clients frequently underestimate how long multi-jurisdiction wealth planning takes. “While some workstreams can progress in parallel, others need to follow a defined sequence, which adds complexity and extends timelines,” she said. Rushed implementation compounds this by creating blind spots and allowing priorities to drift out of alignment.

“The strongest outcomes typically come from starting planning conversations early, allowing time to clarify objectives, align stakeholders, and implement plans in a structured and well-governed way,” she said.

Singapore has attracted a growing share of regional family wealth structuring, and advisory sophistication has increased accordingly, but Fung said the industry focus needs to go further, shifting from structuring design toward implementation discipline. “There is an increasing need for coordinated, multi-disciplinary perspectives across legal, tax, investment and fiduciary areas, with a stronger focus on implementation and follow-through,” she said.

Beyond technical coordination, Fung said advisers increasingly need to lead conversations that help clients translate intentions into plans they understand, feel confident in, and can act on over time. Across the region, structures and advisers are increasingly available, but what remains scarce, she said, is the integration across jurisdictions, timelines and generations that translates well-designed plans into completed transitions. In fragmented cross-border environments, that integration depends on alignment, sequencing and governance discipline sustained across the full execution cycle.