Amid an increasingly fragmented and complex global landscape, ultra-high-net-worth clients are rethinking how they manage wealth, business and inheritance across different jurisdictions and generations.
The rise of Asia as a hub of wealth creation and entrepreneurship is reshaping the way ultra-high-net-worth (UHNW) clients and households deploy capital, especially as they look to fast-growing economies and new investment opportunities. Attracted by the region’s diverse markets and long-term growth opportunities, wealthy families from Europe, the Middle East and the United States have turned to Asia to establish a second base, deepening their involvement not only through investment but also as a gateway to business expansion and long-term strategic partnerships.
This comes as global wealth continues to expand rapidly. according to wealth report 2025 According to Douglas Elliman and Knight Frank, the number of high net worth individuals globally is projected to increase by 4.4% to more than 2.3 million in 2024 and by 28.1% by 2028.
But opportunity also brings greater complexity. Because businesses, assets and family members are dispersed across multiple jurisdictions, wealthy families and clients today require integrated advice for both their personal and business assets. At the same time, these world-class mobile entrepreneurs expect digital access, personalized insights and timely execution at their fingertips.
For DBS Private Bank, the anticipation of these changes has long shaped its strategy.
Joseph Poon, group head of DBS Private Bank.
dbs
“We recognized early on that the private banking customer of the future will be far more global, entrepreneurial and digitally connected. This means investing ahead of demand and building world-first capabilities such as the DBS MFO Foundry VCC and DBS Digital Exchange,” says Joseph Poon, Group Head of DBS Private Bank.
Along with these platforms, the bank has also over the last decade built an integrated “phygital” platform that combines AI-powered capabilities with human advice to provide personalized insights and solutions. But beyond technology and investment platforms, Poon believes the bank’s differentiation lies in recognizing that wealthy clients often need far more than traditional wealth management services.
“About 70% of our private banking clients are also business owners, so their personal and business wealth needs are deeply intertwined,” explains Poon. “Our ‘One Bank’ approach helps clients leverage the expertise of our capital markets and institutional banking teams through a single touchpoint – whether that’s for strategic advice and solutions, financing or even exclusive investment opportunities.”
That approach has helped DBS become a preferred partner for wealth clients around the world, earning the trust of clients in more than 120 markets. Apart from this, the bank also achieved global recognition. In March 2026, DBS became the first Asia-headquartered bank in its 22-year history to win Euromoney’s prestigious “World’s Best Private Bank” award. It also received the “World’s Safest Private Bank” and “World’s Best for Digital Assets” awards.
“These accolades reflect the franchise we have built over many years, built around the evolving needs of global entrepreneurs and multi-generational families,” says Poon.
Meeting the needs of UHNW families around the world
Family offices have become a growing preference for UHNW clients seeking more structured ways to manage assets, governance and succession planning. As an international financial center and a major gateway into Asia, Singapore has emerged as one of the world’s leading hubs for family offices. By the end of 2024, more than 2,000 single-family offices had been established in Singapore, about one-third of which were serviced by DBS.
To meet the growing demand, the Bank launched the world’s first bank-backed multi-family office (DBS MFO) in 2023, leveraging Singapore’s variable capital company structure. DBS MFO offers families a convenient way to manage wealth in Singapore without setting up their own single-family office, providing access to investment management, trade execution and custody services through a single integrated platform.
DBS has since onboarded a number of clients, highlighting the strong demand for more flexible but institutional-style wealth structuring solutions and attracting selected global UHNW clients to the platform.
“We were also able to provide tailored investment solutions for DBS MFO clients by leveraging the structuring capabilities of our global financial markets team,” says Poon. “For example, many of our UHNW clients were able to diversify their onshore wealth exposure through a customized offshore investment portfolio through our VCC structure.”
Leveraging the digital powers of the world’s best private bank
Clients’ expectations of how they access and manage wealth are changing rapidly, especially among younger and more globally connected investors. Anticipating this change early, DBS began investing heavily in digitalization more than a decade ago. Today, more than 90% of its wealth clients actively use its DigiWealth platform.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has since been thoughtfully integrated into areas such as customer service, investment insights and risk monitoring to help clients respond more quickly and confidently to changing market conditions, while also valuing high-touch, personalized service.
Its digital leadership also extends to new assets. DBS was an early mover in digital assets, an area that is attracting increasing interest from young entrepreneurs and the next generation of wealthy individuals.
In 2021, the bank launched the DBS Digital Exchange, becoming the world’s first bank-backed platform for trading and custody of tokenized digital assets alongside traditional investments. Following this, the DBS Trustee became the world’s first bank-backed trust structure capable of holding cryptocurrencies as part of an inheritance plan.
Demand for private market investments and alternative assets has also grown rapidly in recent years, with the share of DBS clients in private assets increasing fivefold over the past five years.
These capabilities are becoming more relevant as young wealth holders look beyond wealth creation. According to Poon, a client in his 30s who built significant wealth through cryptocurrency trading began thinking more seriously about long-term wealth preservation and succession planning after becoming a father. DBS later helped create a trust for him, with his digital assets placed under a trust arrangement.
Poon explains, “We’re seeing that younger clients think about wealth very differently than previous generations. They’re more global, more digitally native and more open to alternative assets. But at the same time, they’re also thinking earlier about legacy and how to protect wealth for the long term.”
A bank offering that meets both your asset and business needs
For wealthy families in Europe, the US and across Asia, Poon believes DBS’s strength lies in its ability to connect clients not only to exclusive investment opportunities, but also to the region’s wider business ecosystem and on-the-ground networks.
This reinforces DBS’s “One Bank” approach, allowing customers to more seamlessly manage personal assets, business financing, investment opportunities, succession planning and family office formation. It also gives them access to institutional-style opportunities and financing solutions that traditionally fall outside private banking relationships.
For example, the Bank’s Equity Capital Markets team advised a UHNW client on its company’s IPO and dual-listing strategy. Another client with a public markets portfolio worth more than US$500 million benefited from a bespoke total return swap transaction executed by the bank’s global financial markets team – a solution commonly used by institutional clients.
Poon says, “Helping clients grow and preserve their wealth will always be important. But increasingly, clients also want a banking partner that can support their businesses, family offices and long-term ambitions. At DBS our wealth and institutional businesses are well integrated, and when combined with our strong track record of collaboration for the benefit of our clients, they create a differentiated wealth proposition.”
building for the next generation
Looking ahead, Poon believes the next phase of private banking will be shaped by founders and families, connecting far more moving parts than before – from operating businesses and global investments to succession planning and impact investing.
“These next-generation clients are inheriting and building at the same time. They are navigating a much more complex environment, where geopolitics, supply chain and market changes can impact both their personal and business wealth simultaneously. The people who manage it best are generally those who take the reins early on both fronts, learning how to allocate capital, as well as taking the time to build the right structures for governance, succession and long-term flexibility.” Let’s invest,” he says.
For DBS, serving this new generation means going beyond traditional wealth management services to help connect them to ideas, networks and opportunities from around the world, while still focusing on supporting them in building resilient businesses and portfolios and preserving their family legacy for the future.