DBS finds family offices unprepared for wealth transfer

DBS found that 43% of family offices had not involved the next generation in wealth planning, while more than 85% lacked a formal, tested business continuity plan.

A new DBS report found that family offices faced gaps in succession planning, risk management and technology as they prepared to preserve wealth across generations. The research also identified three priorities that matter most to families: passing wealth to the next generation, holistic risk management and artificial intelligence (AI) and technology. Across all three, the findings reveal gaps in preparedness.

While families generally recognise the need to act, the research found that the founders’ wish to retain control remains a barrier to succession, with one in three families citing this as the main reason for delaying wealth transfers. On risk management, more than half of the respondents cite a lack of in-house expertise, while more than 85% have no formal business continuity plan, rely on informal arrangements or are unsure whether a plan exists. These gaps raise questions about how effectively families would respond to disruption.

Titled “DBS Asian Family Office Almanac 2026: Assessing the Risk Readiness Gap”, the report draws on two surveys of more than 200 family offices across Asia, Europe and the Middle East, conducted between January and May 2026. It also includes in-depth qualitative interviews with founders, principals, next-generation leaders and other key decision-makers. Key findings include:

Families plan for multiple generations, but the next generation is not yet part of the plan

Nearly eight in 10 families (79%) wish to pass their wealth down at least two generations, while 29% hope for their wealth to endure beyond three generations or in perpetuity.

Yet 43% say the next generation is not involved in wealth planning at all and just 1% of the next generation are leading the design and implementation of the plan.

Founders are holding on and transfers are being left to chance
Only 4% expect a meaningful wealth transfer within the next three years and 29% expect it to take more than seven years. One in three (33%) cite the founder’s wish to stay in control as the main reason for delay and a further 15% expect the transfer to happen only when an event forces it, such as the founder’s incapacity or a crisis. 

Wealth is global, but structures are still personal
More than half (54%) hold key assets in their personal name and 52% use personal investment companies, while only 20% use a professionally administered trust. With the next generation increasingly living and working across borders, 55% remain unsure which new ownership structures to put in place. 

Risk management stops at the portfolio; continuity plans are missing or untested
More than 85% of family offices have no formal business continuity plan, rely on informal arrangements or are unsure whether a plan exists. Only 15% have a plan that is formalised and regularly tested.

Almost 40% (38%) have yet to address cybersecurity and data privacy risk, yet only 3% have or plan to obtain cyber insurance.

Some of the greatest risks come from within the family
27% have not prepared for intergenerational leadership risk, 26% have not addressed governance risk and 23% have not planned for family conflict. Nearly one in four (23%) have not addressed key person risk, but just 9% hold key person insurance.

The most common reason for not addressing risk is a lack of in-house risk management expertise (56%), followed by limited internal resources (48%).

AI interest is high, but day-to-day use lags behind
Six in 10 (60%) see learning how to adopt AI effectively as their main objective, yet 47% have yet to use digital tools or AI in day-to-day operations. Internal expertise gaps (49%) and data security concerns (46%) are the biggest barriers.

Lee Woon Shiu, Group Head of Wealth Planning, Family Office & Insurance Solutions, DBS Bank, said: “As Asia undergoes one of the largest intergenerational wealth transfers in history, our conversations with clients reveal how difficult it can be to move from intention to action. That hesitation is understandable. Passing on a family legacy involves both the investment portfolio and the operating businesses that built the family’s wealth, often with deeply personal decisions about ownership, leadership and control.

“Yet those decisions are becoming more pressing as rapid technological change and market volatility test how families manage their businesses and wealth. Family offices need to look beyond immediate obligations and identify weaknesses in succession arrangements, risk oversight and technology before they become costly problems. The families best placed to protect and grow their wealth will not necessarily be those with the most assets, but those who address these issues early, while they still have time and ample choices.”

As Singapore’s leading family office practice, DBS supports families’ wealth and legacy planning needs through structures such as family trusts and private trust companies, while providing donor-advised fund solutions in partnership with the Community Foundation of Singapore, Temasek Trust Philanthropy Advisors and Asia Community Foundation.

Drawing on its family office expertise, DBS also curates mega insurance and risk management solutions in partnership with Manulife and Chubb to help families protect their wealth across generations. DBS Trustee, the world’s first and only bank-backed trust to hold cryptocurrencies, recorded inflows exceeding SGD 2 billion ($1.5 billion) last year, with about 600 private trusts administered. The DBS Foundry VCC, which debuted in 2023 as the world’s first bank-backed multi-family office that leverages Singapore’s Variable Capital Company structure, is on track to double its AUM to SGD 2 billion ($1.5 billion) by end-2026, achieving in just over half the time what it took to reach the first billion.

Re-disseminated by Wealth and Society