Xinergee | Beyond Returns: The Rise of Impact Investing in Asian Family Offices
A Generational Shift in Values
Across Asia, a meaningful shift is underway in how ultra-high-net-worth families think about their wealth. For decades, the primary objective of family offices was financial return. Today, a growing number of families — particularly those led by the next generation — are expanding that mandate to include environmental, social, and governance (ESG) considerations alongside financial performance. The BNP Paribas and Campden Wealth 2024 Asia-Pacific Family Office Report — surveying 360 family offices including 76 from the region — found that for 57% of APAC family offices, the primary driver of responsible investing is demonstrating wealth’s positive societal impact, not regulatory pressure. This is a values-led shift, not a compliance-driven one.
This shift is particularly relevant for Malaysian families considering the Forest City SFO Scheme. Malaysia’s SFO framework includes a minimum local investment requirement — currently at least 10% of AUM or RM10 million (whichever is lower) directed into eligible and promoted domestic investments. This local investment mandate naturally creates an alignment between impact-oriented capital and Malaysia’s own economic development priorities, including green technology, healthcare, and SME financing.
55% of Asia-Pacific family offices currently integrate ESG and impact-focused strategies into their investment approach, outpacing both North American and European counterparts. (Source: BNP Paribas Wealth Management & Campden Wealth, Asia-Pacific Family Office Report 2024)
Source: BNP Paribas Wealth Management & Campden Wealth, Asia-Pacific Family Office Report 2024
The Regional Landscape: Singapore and Hong Kong Leading
Both Singapore and Hong Kong have embedded ESG considerations into their family office incentive frameworks. In Singapore, the MAS Sections 13O and 13U schemes now include specific Concessionary Deployment Requirements (CDRs) that direct qualifying investments into areas such as climate-related assets and blended finance structures — effectively incentivising ESG-aligned capital allocation.
Hong Kong’s 2025-26 Budget proposals go further, expanding qualifying transactions for family office tax concessions to include emission derivatives, insurance-linked securities, and digital assets — signalling that sustainable finance instruments will become core to Hong Kong’s family office framework.
For Malaysia, the Securities Commission’s current focus on eligible domestic investments — including promoted investments in the Malaysian economy — positions the SFO Scheme as a natural entry point for families that wish to blend financial returns with purposeful capital deployment.
The Investment Landscape
A 2024 Sustainable Finance Initiative (SFi) survey — conducted at the Asian Family Impact Summit among 100 family offices and impact investors — found that more than a quarter of respondents were allocating at least half of their portfolios to impact or ESG-based projects. Key investment themes identified include food and agriculture, circularity and innovative materials, and healthcare access — all areas well represented in Malaysia’s broader economic development priorities.
73% of family offices globally are already engaged in sustainable investing — a figure that reflects a broad shift in how family wealth is being deployed with purpose, not just profit. (Source: UBS Global Family Office Report 2024, as cited in Asseta 2025 Family Office Playbook)
Source: UBS Global Family Office Report 2024 (via Asseta Family Office Playbook, 2025); SFi Asian Family Impact Summit Survey, 2024
▌ CASE STUDY
The Tsao family of Singapore — a fourth-generation maritime and industrial dynasty — offers one of Asia’s most instructive examples of impact-led wealth management. Through TPC (Tsao Pao Chee), the family business was rebranded in April 2024 under Chairman Fred Tsao with a clear mandate to redirect capital towards sustainable food supply chains, environmental impact ventures, and a well-being economy. TPC’s investment arms have already allocated US$320 million towards impact and well-being sectors, encompassing startups focused on environmental sustainability and social impact. Three non-profit units — OCTAVE Institute, No. 17 Foundation, and Restore Nature Foundation — now sit alongside the commercial business to form an integrated ecosystem. Chairman Fred Tsao has publicly positioned TPC as a model for how Asian family businesses can align commercial operations with long-term social and environmental responsibility — a template directly relevant for Malaysian families contemplating how to structure purpose-driven wealth stewardship. (Source: TPC PR Newswire, April 2024; Climate and Capital Media, 2025)
Source: TPC (Tsao Pao Chee) Group PR Newswire, April 2024; Climate and Capital Media, Asia’s Family Offices: The Missing Piece of the Energy Transition, 2025
What This Means for Malaysian Families
For Malaysian families establishing a Single Family Office, defining an explicit impact mandate — embedded in the family constitution and investment policy statement — serves two simultaneous purposes. First, it provides a disciplined framework for values-aligned investing. Second, it directly supports Malaysia’s SFO eligibility conditions, as the local investment requirement can be fulfilled through promoted investments in sectors such as clean technology, healthcare, and financial inclusion.
Philanthropy and impact investing are increasingly used as complementary tools within family offices — philanthropy providing catalytic capital where commercial returns are uncertain, and impact investing targeting measurable outcomes where market conditions allow.
Advisory Perspective: Malaysian families considering ESG integration should begin by defining what impact means within the context of their own values and legacy. A clear impact mandate — embedded in the family constitution and investment policy — provides the disciplined framework needed to balance purpose with performance, while fulfilling the SFO Scheme’s local investment obligations.
Outlook: As next-generation leaders take on greater influence within Malaysian and regional family offices, ESG and impact investing are expected to move from optional add-ons to core portfolio pillars. Families that establish structured impact governance early will be better positioned to attract like-minded co-investors and preserve legacy alignment across generations.
Author Positioning
CEO of Xinergee
Certified Family Office Advisor by Wealth Management Institute, Singapore
British Chamber of Commerce member
Email: evonne@xinergee.com or yeevon09@gmail.com
Website: https://xinergee.com/
Evonne Lim is a Malaysia-based family office advisor specialising in wealth structuring, governance advisory, and intergenerational planning for ultra-high-net-worth families. Her work focuses on helping families navigate the evolving family office landscape across Malaysia and Asia, particularly in areas of succession planning, risk management, and long-term wealth preservation.
