Family office legal structure in Singapore: company, trust or fund vehicle

Which legal structures can a Singapore family office use?

Singapore leaves the choice of vehicle to the family. The MAS licensing exemption is structure agnostic, and it allows the office to be held via a trust, a foundation or another legal structure when the funding comes from the family and from key employees (MAS FAQ, 2026). The family can therefore start from its goals and let the vehicle follow.

3 vehicles do most of the work. A company employs staff and signs contracts, a fund vehicle pools investments, and a trust holds assets for named beneficiaries under a trustee. Each answers a different question, so many families use 2 or 3 together.

Which tasks sit inside the company of a Singapore family office?

A private limited company is the usual operating entity. It employs the team, signs the bank and adviser contracts and can be the office that notifies MAS, since the exemption asks the office to be incorporated in Singapore. ACRA requires at least one director who meets local residency rules and a company secretary who is a natural person (ACRA, 2026). A single company with a clear board keeps decisions traceable for banks and advisers.

The guide on the limited company for a family office covers shareholders, the constitution, the directors and the yearly filings. Choose a company when the office needs employees, a payroll and a single contracting party.

What does a variable capital company offer a family investment fund?

A VCC is a corporate structure for investment funds. MAS introduced it so that a fund can issue and redeem shares without shareholder approval, and it can be standalone or an umbrella with sub-funds that share a board and service providers (MAS media release, 2018). Each sub-fund keeps its assets and liabilities segregated. A family can use this pooling to run several portfolios under common governance.

A VCC appoints a permissible fund manager and at least one auditor within 3 months of incorporation (ACRA, 2026). The guide on the VCC for a family office explains how a family can pool several portfolios in one fund vehicle. Choose a VCC when the family wants separate sub-funds under one board.

What does a trust company do within a family office structure?

A trust holds assets for beneficiaries under a trustee, and a trust company acts as that trustee. The Trust Companies Act governs the licensing and regulation of trust companies in Singapore, and it names licensed trust companies, exempt trust companies and exempt persons that provide trust services (MAS, 2026).

The page on trust companies in Singapore describes what they do for family wealth, how a family works with one and where a trust meets succession planning. Choose a trust when the family wants assets held for named people over time, with a trustee as a separate party. The trustee holds the legal title, and the deed sets out what the beneficiaries receive.

How do a company, a VCC and a trust compare for a family office?

Compare the 3 on 4 points: who owns, who controls, who is regulated and what it costs to run. A company has shareholders and directors, a VCC has shareholders, directors and a fund manager, and a trust has a settlor, a trustee and beneficiaries. Each extra party adds a signature, a fee and a filing.

Running cost grows with the number of vehicles, so the family counts its entities early and justifies each one by a function. A vehicle without a job produces filings and bank checks without producing a benefit, and a missing vehicle forces one entity to carry duties it does not suit.

How do families combine a company, a trust and a fund vehicle?

One pattern places a trust at the top as owner, a company below it as the office and one or more fund vehicles beside it to hold investments. The MAS exemption supports this shape, because it accepts holding via a trust or foundation when the funding comes from family members and from key employees up to 10%.

Another pattern keeps the family simple: one company that is the office and holds the assets directly. A third adds a VCC when several family branches want separate portfolios under one board. The right pattern is the smallest set of entities that does each job and satisfies the MAS conditions. Each pattern should be drawn on a single page, so every adviser reads the same picture.

How should a family choose a legal structure for its family office?

Start from 5 questions: who owns the assets today, who decides in 10 years, which jurisdictions hold the heirs, how much privacy the family wants and what the family can run each year. Write the answers down and test each structure against them. A structure that fails a question needs a redesign before registration. Revisit the answers whenever a birth, a sale or a move changes the picture.

EQOS Asia scores a family decision and ranks the options, including the structure of a wealth plan across jurisdictions (EQOS Asia private page, 2026). A pre-diagnostic applies that method to your case, and the legal drafting remains with your lawyer.

Frequently asked questions

About the author

Stéphane Jambu

President, EQOS Forecast Asia

Stéphane Jambu leads EQOS Forecast Asia and works as a consultant in e-commerce, search visibility, and AI. LinkedIn profile