The Singapore family office model

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A single family office in Singapore is a company that manages the assets of one family and nothing else. The structure that MAS and IRAS have in mind has two layers. A fund entity, usually a Singapore company or VCC, holds the family's investments and receives the tax exemption under section 13O or 13U. A management entity, the family office proper, employs the staff and makes the investment decisions. It is exempt from the fund management licence because it manages only the assets of related persons.¹ The family's wealth sits in the fund, the family's people sit in the management company and the tax incentive turns the fund's investment income into exempt income for as long as the conditions are met.

The model grew from a few dozen offices in 2017 to well over a thousand by 2023. Families were drawn by the absence of capital gains and estate taxes, the fund exemptions, the Global Investor Programme route to permanent residence and the political stability that this book's Part A describes. Digital-asset wealth was a visible part of the inflow. Founders of exchanges, early token investors and protocol teams who had made their fortunes between 2017 and 2021 set up Singapore family offices in large numbers. By 2022 MAS was fielding questions about whether the fund exemption could accommodate portfolios that consisted largely of tokens. The answer, discussed below, was partly no. The events of August 2023 then changed the regulator's posture towards the whole sector.

Notes

Securities and Futures Act 2001, s. 99(1)(h) and the Second Schedule to the Securities and Futures (Licensing and Conduct of Business) Regulations, para 5(1)(b) (exemption for a corporation managing funds for its related corporations); MAS, FAQs on the licensing exemption for single family offices. ↩

For general information only. This article does not constitute legal or tax advice, does not replace advice on an individual case and creates no lawyer-client relationship. It reflects the legal position as of October 2026.

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Dr Alexander Ressos, TEP

Of Counsel, KGP Legal LLC

I am Of Counsel with KGP Legal LLC in Singapore, where I work with a global client base of successful entrepreneurs and their families, independent asset managers, commodity trading houses and other commercial clients. I am a German and Swiss attorney-at-law, also admitted as a solicitor in England & Wales and in Hong Kong. I divide my time between Zug in Switzerland, Singapore and Hong Kong. Since 2017 I have advised international clients on more than 700 crypto and digital asset projects. I also have extensive experience in cross-border litigation and arbitration in Singapore, Hong Kong and other markets in South-East Asia and Greater China.

I operate across the key financial centres in South-East Asia, the Middle East and Switzerland, with a particular focus on asset protection, international tax and estate planning, as well as trusts, company administration and other fiduciary services. My philosophy is to serve as a trusted advisor working closely with my clients and to help them achieve their commercial objectives.

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SingaporeIQ is edited by Dr Alexander Ressos, an international business lawyer with more than 15 years of local experience in Singapore as a permanent resident, a Singapore registered foreign lawyer and managing partner of a Singapore foreign law practice. In addition to significant experience in cross-border investments and transactions, UHNWI private client work and sanctions/export controls, Dr Ressos has extensive experience in cross-border business and in crypto and digital-asset projects in Singapore, drawn from more than 700 projects since 2017.

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