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RBC Wealth released their latest report which provides insight on how succession planning is perceived across Asia, and how Asia’s global families can preserve their financial assets in an increasingly complex context.

The «Asia Pacific Wealth Transfer Report 2017» was released today. It comes at a time when high-net-worth (HNW) families are increasingly looking to establish themselves beyond their place of origin, opening them up to greater complexity when it comes to managing their assets. Tho Gea Hong, head of RBC Wealth Management Southeast Asia spoke to finews.asia on some key aspects of the report.

Tho Gea Hong, are ultra high net worth (UHNW) Asian families doing enough to secure a smooth generational transfer of wealth?

Wealth transfer is, at its heart, an emotional issue for many families and making a smooth generational transfer should be at the forefront of both the families’ – and their advisors’ – minds.

The transfer of wealth is of course complicated by both relations and assets reaching across national borders and jurisdictions, and most importantly, a lack of planning. Our study for the Wealth Transfer Report found that less than one third of respondents have a complete wealth transfer plan in place.

As many HNW families in the region have financial assets and family structures that cross national borders and jurisdictions, wealth transfer becomes more complicated. Without proper planning, complex inheritance laws and regulations can make the transfer of wealth more challenging and may indeed become a very unpleasant experience for beneficiaries.

While our study found that families are doing a good job in taking steps in educating heirs about how they should use their inheritance (57 percent of respondents), they aren’t actually putting in place plans to make the transfer itself.

Is there a big difference across Asia on how UHNW families are managing the wealth transfer, North Asia versus Southeast Asia for example?

The respondents in our study were from Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Taiwan & China and we found that, yes, there’s a number of differences between these regions as to how families are managing the transfer of wealth.

Just to name a few notable differences, 34 percent of Singapore HNW families have prepared a will. However, only 5 percent of China HNW families have done so. This means that families may have no idea how wealth is to be transferred once the time comes.

In addition for those who’ve created full wealth transfer plans, only 19 percent of Singapore’s HNW families have put one in place, whilst Indonesia’s HNW families are better prepared at 43 percent.