Almost a quarter (23 per cent) of family offices are fully prepared for the succession of the next generation as succession planning grows in importance, research by Ocorian has found.

The wealth service provider’s study of family office members and employees also showed that the approach and priorities of the next generation will differ when they take over.

The vast majority (85 per cent) of respondents believed the approach of the next generation would differ from founder, with 28 per cent saying it would differ significantly.

A further 14 per cent said the approach would be different but it was not a contentious issue.

The study, which covered 13 countries including the UK, UAE, and Switzerland, also found widespread agreement on the importance of succession planning.

Almost all (99 per cent) family office employees and advisers felt more needed to be done on succession planning, while 91 per cent were seeing a ‘natural succession’ of wealth and leadership in the families they work with.

Just 3 per cent said they did not see a natural succession of wealth and leadership, while 6 per cent were unsure.

All the family members surveyed agreed more needed to be done on succession planning.

Nearly a quarter (23 per cent) said they were fully prepared for the succession, while a further 73 per cent felt they were prepared but more work needed to be done, and 4 per cent admitted to needing to do a lot more work.

“Succession planning is always important in family offices and family businesses, but the growing wealth of the sector means succession planning is becoming ever more important and complex,” Ocorian head of private client – Cayman, Simona Watkis commented.

“In general, the sector appears to be focused on the issue but less than a quarter say they are fully prepared and there is the additional issue of differences in approach and priorities of the next generation compared with the founders.

“Ensuring that succession planning is done correctly is one of the biggest challenges for family offices and it is one where they should seek advice and support from outside the family.”

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