Private clients will withdraw assets and investment held in Switzerland in favour of Singapore, according to a poll, as Asia increasingly dominates the West and Switzerland falls under greater scrutiny from global tax authorities.

Over three-quarters of respondents to a poll conducted by law firm Lawrence Graham at a panel discussion last week, said they believe traditional Swiss investment would ultimately switch to Singapore, as the fast-growing Asian economy leap-frogs the West.

More than half of those who attended the London-based event, identified the key issue unique to private wealth clients in East Asia, in respect of future planning, as being a greater tendency than Western counterparts to be first generation wealthy. Succession strategy is therefore not as established as it is in developed markets. 

Nearly two thirds of respondents agreed the best way to persuade Chinese wealth owners to carry out wealth planning is to educate them as to the options available.

The most important factors in influencing wealth owners’ decisions as to where to allocate their assets were political structure (28 per cent), perceived levels of security (26 per cent) and tax (19 per cent), while the culture of the people of the country (14 per cent) or knowledge of the country (12 per cent) were less important.

At the same time, the panel emphasised that 'brand awareness', or the need for familiarity with a jurisdiction, has been an important factor in the strong representation of the British Virgin Islands and Cayman Islands in Singapore and Hong Kong, compared with other Western jurisdictions.

Finally, 37 per cent of respondents believed that Chinese wealth owners prefer to locate their assets in Hong Kong, rather than Singapore (29 per cent), the Caribbean (21 per cent), Switzerland (13 per cent) or the Channel Islands (0 per cent).

Around 50 senior people from London’s banking, advisory and investment communities took part in the debate. Panelists included LG Private Capital partner Nick Jacob, Keith Corbin of Nerine, Catherine Grum of Barclays Wealth, Paul James of Citi Trust, Willem Sels of HSBC Private Bank and Frederik van Tuyll of TMF Group. Josh Spero, editor of wealth management publication Spear's WMS, chaired the debate.