Global Family Office Report 2025: What the Data Reveals About Priorities and Allocation

Ocorian's 2025 Global Family Office Report, drawing on structured survey data from family office principals and senior advisers across multiple continents, finds that 68% of family offices plan to increase allocations to private markets over the next 24 months — a figure that signals a decisive and sustained shift away from liquid public-market strategies. For Asia-Pacific principals managing multigenerational capital, this report lands at a moment when Singapore's Variable Capital Company (VCC) framework has crossed 1,000 registered funds, Hong Kong's Open-ended Fund Company (OFC) structure is attracting increasing interest from regional single-family offices, and Dubai's DIFC continues to position itself as the connective tissue between Asian and Gulf capital. The convergence of these structural developments with the global data makes the report directly relevant to any principal benchmarking their own office against international peers.

Why should you care personally? Because the report does not merely describe trends — it quantifies the gap between what family offices say they prioritise and what they have actually implemented. That execution gap is where competitive advantage is either built or lost. If your office is still debating governance frameworks while peers are deploying into secondaries and co-investments, you are not just behind on allocation — you are behind on the organisational infrastructure that makes sophisticated deployment possible. The findings below are filtered specifically for their relevance to Asia-Pacific family office principals.

Private Markets Domination: Allocations, Structures, and the Asia Angle

The report's most actionable finding is that private equity, private credit, and real assets collectively now represent the top three target allocation categories for family offices globally, with private credit emerging as the fastest-growing sub-asset class. Ocorian's data shows that 54% of respondents intend to grow private credit exposure specifically, driven by the combination of elevated base rates and the retreat of traditional bank lending from mid-market borrowers. For Asia-Pacific offices, this creates a structural opportunity: regional private credit managers are scaling rapidly, and family offices with direct-lending mandates are finding deal flow that institutional funds are too large or too slow to access.

The structural question for regional principals is which vehicle best houses these allocations. Singapore's VCC, regulated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), offers a sub-fund architecture that allows a single family office to segregate private equity, private credit, and real asset sleeves within one umbrella — reducing administrative overhead while maintaining legal segregation of liabilities. The VCC's re-domiciliation mechanism, which allows foreign funds to migrate into the Singapore structure, has been used by several Asia-based single-family offices to consolidate offshore holdings. Hong Kong's OFC, overseen by the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC), offers comparable flexibility and has attracted attention from family offices with deep Greater China investment mandates, particularly those requiring a structure recognised under the SFC's licensing framework.

In Dubai, the DIFC's Family Arrangements Regulations provide a dedicated legal framework for family wealth structures, including provisions for family constitutions, governance councils, and succession protocols — elements that the Ocorian report identifies as underdeveloped in a significant proportion of surveyed offices globally. For families with assets spanning the Gulf, South Asia, and Southeast Asia, a DIFC-domiciled holding structure alongside a Singapore VCC operating entity represents an increasingly common dual-jurisdiction architecture.

"54% of family offices surveyed by Ocorian plan to increase private credit allocations — making it the fastest-growing sub-asset class in the 2025 report, ahead of both private equity and real assets."

Governance and Succession: The Persistent Execution Gap

The Ocorian report identifies governance as the single most cited operational challenge among surveyed family offices, with 61% acknowledging that their governance documentation does not fully reflect current family circumstances. This includes outdated investment policy statements, family constitutions that predate the involvement of next-generation members, and advisory board mandates that have not been reviewed since the office's founding. The gap between aspiration and documentation is not merely administrative — it is a litigation and succession risk. In jurisdictions such as Singapore, where MAS has progressively tightened the criteria for the Enhanced Tier family office incentive scheme (requiring, among other conditions, a minimum AUM of S$10 million at application and S$20 million within two years), governance documentation is increasingly scrutinised during regulatory review.

Succession planning receives specific attention in the report, with 47% of respondents indicating that next-generation family members are not yet formally integrated into investment decision-making processes. This is a striking figure given that the next-generation transition is the single most commonly cited existential risk to single-family office continuity. The report recommends a phased integration model: beginning with observer status on investment committees, progressing to defined mandates within specific asset classes, and ultimately to co-principal roles with accountability for specific portfolio sleeves. Several Asia-Pacific family offices have adopted this model successfully, pairing it with structured secondment programmes at external asset managers or private equity firms.

The report also flags the talent dimension of governance. Attracting and retaining qualified investment professionals within a family office structure — where compensation benchmarks must compete with private equity and hedge fund pay scales — remains a persistent challenge. Offices that have solved this problem typically offer carried interest equivalents, co-investment rights alongside the family, and genuine decision-making authority rather than an advisory-only role. MAS's framework for variable capital incentives within the VCC structure can be used to formalise co-investment arrangements for key staff, a mechanism that is underutilised by smaller offices.

Philanthropy and Impact: Moving From Intention to Mandate

Ocorian's 2025 data shows that 43% of family offices now have a formalised philanthropic or impact investing mandate, up from 31% in their 2023 survey — a 12-percentage-point increase in two years that reflects genuine principal-level commitment rather than reputational positioning. In Asia-Pacific, this trend is particularly pronounced among second- and third-generation principals who are driving the integration of environmental and social criteria into the core investment policy statement rather than treating philanthropy as a separate, discretionary budget line. The structural implication is that impact allocation is increasingly being evaluated using the same return-attribution rigour applied to private equity.

Singapore's Philanthropy Tax Incentive Scheme and the MAS-supported Philanthropy Centre of Excellence provide infrastructure for family offices seeking to formalise giving programmes without sacrificing investment discipline. Hong Kong's SFC has similarly engaged with the concept of impact-linked structures under the OFC framework. For offices with regional philanthropic interests spanning Southeast Asia, South Asia, and Greater China, a donor-advised fund structure domiciled within a Singapore VCC sub-fund offers both tax efficiency and governance clarity — allowing the family to maintain strategic control while achieving the legal separation required for charitable classification.

Strategic Takeaways for Asia-Pacific Family Office Principals

The Ocorian 2025 report, read through an Asia-Pacific lens, produces a set of actionable priorities that are directly applicable to principals reviewing their office's positioning for the next investment cycle. The following numbered list distils the report's most operationally relevant findings:

1. Audit private credit exposure: With 54% of global peers increasing allocations, offices without a defined private credit mandate risk underperforming on a risk-adjusted basis over the next two years. Review whether your current manager roster includes dedicated Asia-Pacific private credit capacity.
2. Review VCC or OFC structuring: If your office has not formally evaluated the VCC (MAS) or OFC (SFC) as a consolidation vehicle for private market holdings, the 2025 regulatory environment — including enhanced incentive thresholds — makes this review overdue.
3. Update governance documentation: The 61% governance gap identified by Ocorian is a risk metric, not a bureaucratic concern. Investment policy statements, family constitutions, and advisory board mandates should be reviewed on a biennial cycle at minimum.
4. Formalise next-generation integration: Define a written integration roadmap for next-generation family members, including specific asset class mandates, committee observer rights, and a timeline for co-principal responsibility.
5. Formalise impact allocation: If philanthropy or impact investing represents more than 5% of annual deployment, it warrants a standalone mandate with defined return and impact metrics — not a discretionary budget line.
6. Benchmark talent compensation: Co-investment rights and carried interest equivalents are now table-stakes for retaining senior investment staff. Review your compensation structure against private equity benchmarks, not traditional wealth management scales.
7. Evaluate dual-jurisdiction architecture: For families with assets spanning Asia and the Gulf, a DIFC family arrangement combined with a Singapore VCC operating entity is an increasingly validated structure worth modelling with your legal advisers.

What to Watch: Forward-Looking Signals for 2025 and 2026

Several regulatory and market developments will materially affect the strategic choices available to Asia-Pacific family offices over the next 18 months. MAS is expected to issue further guidance on the Enhanced Tier family office incentive scheme, particularly around the definition of qualifying investments and the local hiring requirements that have become a de facto condition of approval. Offices currently under the scheme should monitor these updates closely, as changes to the qualifying investment list could affect the tax efficiency of existing private market allocations.

In Hong Kong, the SFC's ongoing review of the OFC framework is expected to produce updated guidance on the use of OFCs for single-family office purposes, potentially expanding the range of eligible asset classes and simplifying the authorisation process for offices managing assets below the current institutional thresholds. The DIFC is separately expected to release updated Family Arrangements Regulations guidance that addresses digital asset custody — a development relevant to families with legacy crypto or tokenised asset holdings that require formal structuring. Principals should also monitor the evolution of Singapore's philanthropy tax framework, where MAS and the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) are understood to be reviewing the treatment of impact-linked returns within donor-advised structures.

The Ocorian report's broader message is that the family offices pulling ahead of their peers are not doing so through superior market timing — they are doing so through superior organisational infrastructure. Governance, succession, talent, and structure are the levers that compound over decades. Principals who treat these as administrative tasks rather than strategic investments are, in effect, discounting the value of their own office's future.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does Ocorian's 2025 Global Family Office Report say about private credit allocations?

The report finds that 54% of surveyed family offices plan to increase private credit allocations over the next 24 months, making it the fastest-growing sub-asset class ahead of private equity and real assets. The primary drivers cited are elevated base rates and reduced bank lending activity in the mid-market segment, both of which create direct-lending opportunities for family offices with the operational capacity to underwrite and monitor private loans.

How does Singapore's VCC structure benefit Asia-Pacific family offices investing in private markets?

The Variable Capital Company (VCC), regulated by MAS, allows a family office to house multiple investment strategies — private equity, private credit, real assets — within a single umbrella structure with legally segregated sub-funds. This reduces administrative duplication, provides a recognised Singapore domicile for regulatory and tax purposes, and supports co-investment arrangements for key staff. The VCC's re-domiciliation mechanism also allows foreign funds to migrate into the structure, making it useful for offices consolidating offshore holdings.

What governance gaps does the Ocorian 2025 report identify, and why do they matter for succession?

The report finds that 61% of family offices have governance documentation that does not reflect current family circumstances, and 47% have not formally integrated next-generation members into investment decision-making. These gaps create succession risk, potential litigation exposure, and regulatory scrutiny — particularly in Singapore, where MAS reviews governance documentation as part of the Enhanced Tier family office incentive scheme application process.

What is the DIFC Family Arrangements Regulations framework, and when is it relevant for Asia-Pacific families?

The DIFC Family Arrangements Regulations, administered by the Dubai International Financial Centre, provide a dedicated legal framework for family wealth structures including governance councils, family constitutions, and succession protocols. It is most relevant for families with assets spanning the Gulf, South Asia, and Southeast Asia, and is increasingly used in combination with a Singapore VCC operating entity to create a dual-jurisdiction architecture that addresses both asset management and family governance needs.

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