Across the world, affluent families are navigating an increasingly complex financial landscape. The great wealth transfer from Baby Boomers to their heirs, market volatility, rising or proposed wealth taxes (including inheritance taxes), and shifting global regulations have made wealth preservation as challenging as wealth creation. From intergenerational transfers to multi-jurisdictional succession, the modern family’s financial architecture now demands more than just investment acumen — it requires foresight, governance, and alignment.
Enter Aura Private Wealth — a trusted Singapore-based multi-family office and part of the Aura Group, a diversified financial services platform spanning Asia Pacific. Aura was founded on the belief that wealth should be an enabler of purpose — a source of empowerment for generations. The firm partners with high-net-worth individuals, entrepreneurs, and family offices to design holistic strategies that protect and grow family capital through generations.
The Strategic Advantages of Singapore
Singapore has established itself as the Switzerland of Asia for family wealth management, attracting families and institutions seeking a stable, trusted jurisdiction. Its strengths are undeniable — political and economic stability, a robust legal framework, pro-business environment, and world-class quality of life.
The city-state’s tax neutrality and transparent regulatory regime make it particularly attractive for global families navigating rising tax pressures elsewhere. Incentive programs such as Sections 13O and 13U offer tax exemptions for qualifying family offices, supporting the professional management of private capital through licensed fund-management entities.
Geographically positioned at the crossroads of Asia, Singapore serves as a natural gateway to the region’s dynamic economies — from Vietnam to Indonesia to India. Today, it is home to over 2,000 registered family offices, a number that rose by 43% and over 600 new family offices in 2024 alone. This is likely to continue to grow as wealth owners seek safe harbour in a more fragmented global landscape.
Singapore’s Wealth Structures and Private Banking Ecosystem
Aura helps clients harness Singapore’s most innovative wealth-management vehicles to achieve both flexibility and security:
Trusts provide robust protection and ensure smooth succession planning, shielding assets from fragmentation and aligning family intent with execution.
Insurance Bonds offer tax-efficient diversification and estate-planning flexibility — an elegant solution for families managing multi-jurisdictional assets.
Variable Capital Companies (VCCs) have emerged as the preferred structure for professionalised family investments. These vehicles combine fund-level governance with scalability, confidentiality, and tax transparency, creating institutional efficiency within a private framework.
Complementing these structures is Singapore’s deep private-banking ecosystem. With more than 50 leading banks, including Bank of Singapore, UOB Private, DBS Private, LGT, VP Bank, Vontobel, Deutsche Bank, SwissQuote and Nomura the ecosystem offers expansive capabilities: global custody, alternative-investment access, structured solutions, and personalised concierge services.
Aura’s role is to curate and coordinate these relationships — ensuring families gain not only access to best-in-class partners but also the oversight and integration needed to turn a network of banks into a cohesive wealth strategy.
Local Partnership for Global Wealth Firms
Beyond serving families directly, Aura also acts as a local partner for global wealth managers, private banks, and family offices that lack on-the-ground presence in Singapore. By leveraging Aura’s expertise, infrastructure, and regulatory understanding, global firms can confidently extend their reach into Asia and provide clients access to Singapore’s premier wealth-structuring ecosystem.
Aura’s Private Wealth: A Holistic Partnership
At its heart, Aura Private Wealth offers an integrated suite of solutions designed to help families gain clarity, control, and continuity over their wealth.
1. Multi-Family Office Services
Aura provides comprehensive wealth planning, investment management, and family governance under one roof. Families receive institutional-grade processes — strategic asset allocation, consolidated reporting, and curated co-investment opportunities — delivered with the intimacy and discretion of a boutique partner.
2. Objective Client-Aligned Advice
Aura’s advisory model is built on objectivity. Led by veterans Tong Hoe Sng and Nicholas Teo and senior family office advisers Darryl Tom, Chin Seng Neo, Paul Leo, Yvonne Tan and Charles Quek who bring a combined 200 hundred years of experience across Southeast Asia’s private banking and wealth-management landscape, the firm focuses purely on what serves the family’s best interests.
3. Private Banking Relationships
Aura’s clients enjoy access to a network of top-tier global private banks and regional custodians, securing liquidity, credit, and investment opportunities on competitive terms. From Lombard lending and structured credit to multi-currency facilities and tailored ESG portfolios, Aura acts as the strategic bridge between families and the banking ecosystem, ensuring every relationship is curated for suitability and long-term partnership.
4. Structuring and Tax Efficiency
Amid tightening international tax regimes and the global trend toward wealth taxation, Aura designs structures that offer both compliance and flexibility. Leveraging Singapore’s sophisticated framework, the firm develops bespoke trust, fund, and holding-company solutions that align with each family’s governance and legacy objectives.
5. Governance and Succession
Aura recognizes that wealth management is ultimately about people, not portfolios. The firm helps families build governance frameworks, legacy charters, and succession plans that preserve harmony and clarity across generations — ensuring wealth endures with purpose, not friction.
A Legacy of Trust and Alignment
In a world defined by change — from regulatory reforms to shifting social expectations — the principles of stewardship and alignment remain timeless. Aura Private Wealth embodies those principles, empowering families to preserve their legacies while adapting to an evolving global landscape.
By uniting the entrepreneurial spirit of Aura Group with the sophistication of Singapore’s wealth ecosystem, Aura Private Wealth stands as a guide for families and for global partners seeking a trusted foothold in Asia.
Please contact us for a discussion.