Publication Type

PhD Dissertation

Version

publishedVersion

Publication Date

12-2025

Abstract

The rapid development of China's economy has propelled the domestic market to become the world's second-largest wealth management market. As a high-end segment of wealth management, family wealth management is gaining market attention alongside the continuous expansion of affluent groups such as entrepreneurs. Given that China is currently an emerging market, the modern family wealth management industry is in its early stages of development. There is a lack of understanding of the service connotations of family wealth management in the market. Various service institutions, constrained by regulatory environments, their own genetic makeup, and top-level business strategies, are affected to varying degrees in their layout in the field of family wealth management. Most institutions focus their services on wealth growth and the use of various financial tools, lacking a holistic approach to family wealth management. This weakens the attention to the human capital, intellectual capital, and social capital behind family clients. Additionally, the entrepreneurial group has limited awareness of family wealth creation, preservation, and inheritance. Particularly, the first generation of entrepreneurs since China's reform and opening up are gradually entering the stage of succession, making the smooth transition of family wealth management beneficial for social employment and national economic stability.

Based on China's unique context, this paper focuses on the business model of family wealth management, referencing domestic and international literature, and combining Michael Porter's theory of differentiation competition and Markowitz's modern portfolio theory. It constructs a structural analysis model of family wealth management service models from the aspects of organizational systems, service processes, service content, and income models of service institutions. The paper comparatively analyzes six types of family wealth service models currently in the Chinese market, summarizing that differentiation competition in family wealth  management is reflected in the differentiated market cognition, differentiated product shelves, differentiated product combinations (asset allocation), and differentiated service experiences of service institutions. It emphasizes the important role of asset allocation in current family wealth management and verifies the applicability of modern portfolio theory in the Chinese family wealth management market through profound historical lessons from case analysis. Finally, it concludes that the essence of family wealth management is the platform operation and ecosystem competition of service institutions. The principles of asset allocation should not be overlooked in the pursuit of wealth growth, and the healthy development of the family wealth management industry is a long-term process that requires the joint efforts of service institutions, professional teams, and clients.

Keywords

Wealth Management, Family Wealth Management, Family Trust, Family Office, Differentiation Competition, Asset Allocation

Degree Awarded

Doctor of Business Administration (Accounting and Finance)

Discipline

Accounting | Asian Studies | Finance and Financial Management

Supervisor(s)

FU, Fangjian

First Page

1

Last Page

183

Publisher

Singapore Management University

City or Country

Singapore

Copyright Owner and License

Author

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