The Institute of Banking and Finance Singapore (IBF) and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has launched a skills map for family office advisors to deepen specialist skillsets, in order to better serve Singapore’s growing family office ecosystem.
The Family Office Advisor Skills Map sets out the skills and competencies that professionals advising family offices should possess, such as wealth planning administration and corporate governance.
Meanwhile, the Family Office Advisor role will expand the career pathway for private banking relationship managers under the Skills Framework for Financial Services.
In a joint release, MAS and IBF said the skills map will be a valuable resource for training providers and financial institutions to design and calibrate relevant training curriculum, and for family offices to refer to when hiring new recruits.
They added training programmes accredited by IBF under the skills map will be able to benefit from the IBF-Standards Training Scheme grant, which offsets training expenses. In addition, private banking professionals who have acquired the relevant skills and experience will be able to apply for IBF Certification.
Mr Benny Chey, who is Assistant Managing Director (Development and International) at MAS said, “Our family office professionals must continuously deepen and grow relevant skillsets and competencies to provide valued advice and customised solutions that meet their clients’ needs and aspirations. The launch of the Family Office Advisor Skills Map is timely and will further propel efforts to lift our family office capabilities to a new level.”
In response to the announcement, EY Asia-Pacific’s Family Enterprise Leader Desmond Teo said the skills map was “timely and forward looking”, and added “ Unlike family offices in the US and Europe, they (Asian families) typically expand their asks of family offices to become steward of future generations and cover more complex needs in inheritance management, philanthropy, governance and other support.”