More and more wealthy Chinese are worried about keeping their money on the mainland and some see Singapore as a safe haven.
Since protests disrupted Hong Kong's economy in 2019, affluent Chinese have looked for alternative places to store their wealth. Singapore proved attractive because of its large Mandarin Chinese-speaking community and, unlike many countries, it doesn't have a wealth tax.
The trend appeared to pick up last year after Beijing's sudden crackdown on the education industry and emphasis on «common prosperity» — moderate wealth for all, rather than just a few.
That's according to CNBC's interviews with firms in Singapore that are helping wealthy Chinese move their assets to the city-state via the family office structure.
A family office is a privately held company that handles investment and wealth management for an affluent family. In Singapore, setting up a family office typically requires at least $5 million in assets.
Over the last 12 months, inquiries about setting up a family office in Singapore have doubled at Jenga, a five-year-old accounting and corporate services firm, according to its founder Iris Xu. She said the majority of inquiries come from people in China or emigrants from the country.
About 50 of her clients have opened family offices in Singapore — each with at least $10 million in assets, Xu said.
China's rapid economic growth has minted hundreds of billionaires in just a few decades. Many more joined their ranks their last year, according to Forbes.
That brought the total number of billionaires in China to 626, second only to the United States' 724 billionaires, the data showed.
But mainland China's tight capital controls — an official limit of $50,000 in overseas foreign exchange
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