For families considering a Singapore single family office (SFO), almost every conversation eventually narrows to a single question: 13O or 13U? These are the two principal fund tax incentive schemes under Sections 13O and 13U of the Income Tax Act 1947 that, when granted by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), can exempt qualifying investment [...]
Singapore's Global Investor Programme (GIP) remains one of the most direct routes for high-net-worth investors to obtain Singapore Permanent Residence (PR) — but it is also one of the most misunderstood. Administered by the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB), the GIP is not a passive "investor visa" handed out for parking money in a bank [...]
Singapore offers two parallel tax-exemption schemes for fund vehicles managed by family offices: Section 13O and Section 13U of the Income Tax Act 1947. Both schemes shelter "specified income" derived from "designated investments" from Singapore tax — but they target different sizes of family wealth and impose meaningfully different conditions on assets, hiring, spending, and [...]
Singapore has cemented itself as Asia's leading family office hub. The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) reported that the number of single family offices in Singapore had crossed 2,000 by the end of 2024, with the trajectory continuing to climb through 2026 as more high-net-worth families and Asian principals consolidate their wealth-management activities here. Yet [...]
Singapore's family office boom over the past five years has been built on two letters of the Income Tax Act 1947: O and U. Section 13O and Section 13U are the two main fund tax exemption schemes that family offices use to shelter qualifying investment income from Singapore tax. They sound similar, and indeed share [...]
The Global Investor Programme (GIP) is Singapore's flagship investor immigration scheme. Administered by Contact Singapore — a unit of the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) — the GIP grants Singapore Permanent Residence (PR) directly to qualifying entrepreneurs, business owners, and family office principals who commit to a substantial economic contribution to Singapore. It is one [...]
Singapore has cemented its reputation as Asia's premier wealth management hub, and at the centre of that story sits the single family office (SFO). For ultra-high-net-worth families, the appeal is straightforward: a politically stable jurisdiction, a deep professional ecosystem, robust regulatory oversight by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), and two well-defined fund tax incentive [...]
Singapore has, in less than a decade, become the dominant family office hub in Asia. As of 2024, MAS publicly disclosed that more than 2,000 single family offices had received tax incentive approval, up from fewer than 50 in 2018. The trajectory has continued through 2025 and into 2026, fuelled by HNW migration from Hong [...]
For decades, the Cayman Islands has been the default jurisdiction of choice for fund sponsors raising capital from Asian and global investors. The Segregated Portfolio Company (SPC), in particular, became the workhorse vehicle for multi-strategy hedge funds, private equity sleeves, and bespoke managed accounts. But in 2020, Singapore quietly introduced a competitor: the Variable Capital [...]
Singapore has emerged as Asia's premier hub for single-family offices, with the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) reporting more than 2,000 single-family offices established by the end of 2024 — a number that continues to grow despite tightened criteria. The combination of political stability, sophisticated financial infrastructure, deep capital markets, and the headline tax exemption [...]