Singapore’s position as Asia’s pre-eminent wealth management hub has never been more secure on paper, nor more contested in practice. Competing jurisdictions are sharpening their propositions, client expectations are rising, and the profile of the wealth holder arriving in Singapore today looks markedly different from even five years ago. For the institutions that serve them, the challenge is no longer simply one of access or product, but of relevance: can the advisory model evolve fast enough to meet a new generation of globally minded, digitally fluent entrepreneurs whose needs span businesses, borders and asset classes?
At the recent Hubbis Wealth Planning and Structuring Forum in Singapore, Alice Tan, Head of Group Wealth Management at Maybank, brought a regional banking perspective to these questions. Speaking as part of the opening panel discussion, Tan drew on Maybank’s extensive ASEAN footprint to outline where wealth is being created across the region, how client expectations are shifting, and what Singapore must do to maintain its competitive edge in an increasingly crowded market.
Key Takeaways
Asia-Pacific Wealth Growth Remains Exceptional: High-net-worth wealth across the region grew by 10.5 percent in 2025, with ASEAN markets posting particularly strong gains and reinforcing Singapore’s role as a natural hub.
The Client Profile Is Changing: Today’s entrepreneurs are globally educated, technologically sophisticated and generating wealth across multiple markets, requiring advisory models that bridge business and personal needs.
Singapore’s Appeal Rests on Trust, Not Speed: Longer setup timelines and higher compliance standards are not deterrents for serious families, who prioritise governance, policy stability and institutional credibility over ease of entry.
Competing Jurisdictions Are Closing the Gap: Neighbouring markets such as Malaysia are actively courting family office capital, and Singapore cannot afford complacency in its positioning.
Product Evolution Is Essential: Continued access to emerging asset classes, including digital assets, tokenised products and private markets, will be critical to retaining the next generation of wealth holders.
The ASEAN Wealth Pipeline
Tan opened her contributions with a data-driven survey of where wealth is being created across the region, grounding the discussion in numbers that underscore the scale of the opportunity. Asia-Pacific high-net-worth wealth grew by 10.5 percent in 2025, she noted, and within that broader picture, ASEAN markets are generating some of the most impressive gains.
“Just looking at ASEAN in the last five years, we see strong growth in ultra-high-net-worth wealth,” Tan observed. “Philippines wealth grew by 63 percent over the last five years, followed by Indonesia at close to 50 percent.”
For Maybank, with its deep footprint across Southeast Asia, these figures represent not merely a market trend but a direct business reality. The wealth being created in these markets is increasingly mobile, and the families behind it are looking for jurisdictions that can offer institutional credibility, connectivity and long-term stability. Singapore, Tan argued, remains exceptionally well positioned to capture these flows, particularly given the political uncertainty affecting other potential destinations.
A New Kind of Wealth Holder
Yet the quantum of wealth is only part of the story. Tan was equally focused on how the profile of the wealth holder is changing. The current generation of Asian entrepreneurs differs from its predecessors in several important respects. They are more globally educated, more technologically fluent, and more diversified in how and where they generate income.
“Unlike the past, where probably their focus was a lot more on domestic, now they are generating their wealth across various markets and with ambition more regionally as well as globally,” Tan explained.
This shift has direct implications for the advisory relationship. Clients who operate across multiple jurisdictions, asset classes and business lines require a model of service that goes beyond product distribution. They expect holistic advice that connects their commercial interests with their personal wealth management needs, and they are sophisticated enough to know when that advice falls short.
“They are no longer looking for access to products,” Tan said. “They are looking for holistic advice, being able to service them in a more holistic way, bridging their needs between their businesses as well as their personal needs.”
At the same time, she was careful to note that certain fundamentals have not changed. Regardless of how sophisticated the client or how complex the structure, the wealth management business remains a relationship business. Personalised advice and trust, Tan observed, continue to be the qualities that clients value above all else.
Singapore’s Enduring Strengths
When the discussion turned to Singapore’s competitive positioning, Tan offered a balanced assessment that acknowledged both the jurisdiction’s strengths and the risks of taking them for granted. She recognised that the process of establishing a family office in Singapore has become more demanding, with timelines now extending well beyond the three-month benchmarks of earlier years. For some families, this represents a genuine deterrent.
But for the ultra high-net-worth segment, Tan argued, these longer timelines are not the decisive factor. What matters to serious families is the quality of the institutional environment, and on that measure, Singapore continues to score highly.
“They are looking for other aspects, for example trust, whether the governance is strong enough in the country,” she said. “Stability, continuity of policies. The last thing you want is that any tax incentive that is given is taken away in the next three to five years. I think that continues to appeal to ultra high-net-worth families.”
Beyond the regulatory framework, Tan pointed to a range of softer factors that reinforce Singapore’s attractiveness, particularly for families considering relocation. Access to world-class education, a safe living environment, and the city-state’s physical connectivity to both ASEAN and the wider world were all cited as meaningful advantages.
“When family offices come to Singapore, they want a place that they trust, but at the same time connected to the rest of the world, for them to be able to travel conveniently to do their businesses,” she noted.
Competition and Complacency
Tan was careful, however, not to present Singapore’s position as unassailable. She acknowledged that neighbouring jurisdictions are actively seeking to attract family office capital, citing Malaysia’s efforts to court investors to locations such as Forest City as one example of the growing competition.
“Singapore always has its space to play,” she said. “But we cannot be complacent.”
This warning extended beyond jurisdictional competition to encompass the product and service offering itself. Tan argued that Singapore must continue to evolve its platform to accommodate the asset classes and investment vehicles that the next generation of wealth holders increasingly expects. Digital assets, tokenised products, private markets and alternative investments were all identified as areas where continued development is essential.
“These are the things that investors are looking for more and more going forward,” she observed.
The implication is that Singapore’s competitive advantage cannot rest on reputation and regulatory credibility alone. It must also demonstrate that its financial ecosystem is capable of keeping pace with the changing nature of wealth itself.
The Balancing Act
In the rapid-fire closing round, Tan was asked to identify the biggest risk that Singapore must avoid. Her answer distilled the central tension that had run through much of her commentary: the need to balance competitiveness with credibility.
“Being too restrictive will potentially push our clients to other more agile jurisdictions,” she warned. “But being too relaxed will undermine the credibility that Singapore has as a wealth hub.”
It is a formulation that captures the dilemma facing not only Singapore’s regulators but the entire advisory ecosystem that has grown up around the jurisdiction. The families arriving today are more discerning, more mobile and more demanding than ever before. They will not tolerate unnecessary friction, but nor will they entrust their wealth to a jurisdiction that compromises on standards.
For Tan, the answer lies in disciplined evolution: maintaining the governance and institutional credibility that have made Singapore a trusted destination, while ensuring that the platform remains dynamic enough to serve a client base whose expectations are changing rapidly. It is a balance that requires constant attention, and one that Singapore can ill afford to get wrong.