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Asia Family Office CEOs Are Top Performers, Lowest Paid

Asia Family Office CEOs Are Top Performers, Lowest Paid

(Bloomberg) -- The CEOs of Asia’s family offices are the best in the world at investing the wealth of their super-rich clients, but don’t reap the riches themselves, according to the latest annual UBS Global Family Office Report.

Family offices are tight-lipped organizations founded by the 1%, and tasked with preserving and investing vast pools of multigenerational wealth. In Asia, the average family office surveyed managed $600 million and returned 6.2% in the year through March 31, according to the report.

That beat the 5.9% gained by North American peers, and trounced the 4.3% return of European family offices, according to the report, which surveyed 360 organizations. Asian family offices’ preference to back property and private equity deals helped boost their results, said Anurag Mahesh, head of UBS’s family-office operations in the region.

But despite working for families with an average net worth of more than $900 million, the chief executive officers at Asia family offices surveyed earned an average $225,000 a year with a 32% bonus -- a relative pittance compared with their global counterparts. North American family-office chiefs made $408,000 with a 52% bonus, while Europeans scored $323,000 with a 49% bonus, the report showed.

Even emerging-market family offices, where the average family is worth slightly less, paid their CEOs a more generous $314,000 a year on average, alongside a 57% bonus. Emerging-market offices also returned an average 6.2%, the report showed.

The report also showed that Asian heirs have begun to change their family’s investment strategies as they take the reins. About 40% of family offices in the region are now engaged in sustainable investing -- a sharp increase in line with the ethical goals of many younger wealth holders.

--With assistance from Abhishek Vishnoi.

To contact the reporter on this story: David Ramli in Singapore at dramli1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Katrina Nicholas at knicholas2@bloomberg.net, Peter Vercoe, Daniel Taub

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.