Credit Suisse’s Asia family office business has gone from strength to strength since it was established just over a decade ago.
Its structure has changed little: the bank still has a fee-paying, advisory model for its family office clients, and does not offer any investment advice or tax and legal advice. Its value proposition, however, has continued to grow.
One of Credit Suisse’s key differentiating factors versus other banks that offer family office services is its focus on what it calls the ‘hardware’ and ‘software’ needs, where hardware is focused on the set-up of the family office itself, and software is focused on the family intangibles, such as family governance and next-generation wealth transition.
This means that the bank offers a full suite of services to its ultra high net worth clients, from building a family office and managing liquidity, to guiding the next generation in setting up their own family offices.
Its structure holds obvious appeal. The bank says that more than 60% of the business families it works with are on the Forbes lists. It also helps that Credit Suisse puts extra emphasis on hiring bankers with first-hand experience of working in a family office set-up.
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