The launch aligns with the Hong Kong government flagging its desire to attract family offices, HNW individuals, and families to the city. Julius Baer said that its programme, run in conjunction with the RSM Family Office Institute, is the first of its kind in Asia.

Julius Baer has launched an exclusive family wealth planning certificate programme for its ultra-high net worth and next generation clients in the Asia-Pacific region.

The Swiss bank which, as reported elsewhere, has also opened a new Hong Kong office, said the programme is the first of its kind to be offered by a wealth manager in Asia. Julius Baer designed it after consulting its front-office team and receiving feedback from clients.

The programme is an extension of the RSM Family Office Institute, from which successful participants will graduate with a certificate of completion from Cornell University’s SC Johnson College of Business Smith Family Business Initiative and Julius Baer.

The move comes after Hong Kong’s government flagged its desire to attract family offices and HNW individuals and families to the city, mindful of competition from rival centres such as Singapore. Such ventures also tap into an oft-repeated point that more must be done to prepare NextGen clients and families for wealth transfer and business transition.

The course aims to equip its clients in Asia with the skills necessary to navigate cross-generational transitions more effectively. The programme includes multidisciplinary training on topics such as understanding and navigating family dynamics, the importance of building trust among family members, why family governance is critical, how to build high performance teams, and succession planning, the bank said in a statement.

Julius Baer expects that the programme, due to start in April, will complete in January 2024.

Participants will complete 14 online modules and acquire the knowledge they need to structure their wealth and family businesses for future success in order to ensure that their legacy is preserved for generations to come. In addition to classroom learning, participants will be able to network with their peers across the region, learn from real-life case studies and exchange valuable insights and experiences.

“During our numerous interactions with our clients, we found that they have a deep desire to go through a more rigorous training programme tailored to their wealth transfer needs in addition to some of the existing short-term programmes that are common in the industry today,” Eleanor Yuen, head of wealth and tax planning Asia, Julius Baer, said. “Our goal is to inspire confidence in our clients’ succession planning and support their long-term goals by imparting a holistic view in the wealth planning space.”

The bank said it is tapping into clients’ needs at a time when family wealth planning and dynamics are becoming more complicated. For example, in its 2022 Julius Baer Family Barometer publication, it found that 41 per cent of families have family members on three or more continents. The report also lists the top-three discussion topics “beyond investments” for families as family wealth, family governance, and health, all core topics of focus in the programme.

“RSM has been investing heavily in talent development and has nurtured a highly specialised team catering to serve family offices. Through the RSM Family Office Institute powered by Cornell University, our specialists have continued to evolve into subject-matter-experts for clients both internally and externally,” Eric Chen, partner and head of private client services at RSM Hong Kong, said.

“We are launching this programme at a particularly opportunistic juncture, following the recent policy address by the Hong Kong Government and a slate of newly-announced incentives to attract family offices to Hong Kong,” Chen said.