Asian’s wealthy families are most concerned about business growth, diversification and the allocation of family assets. Research has also pointed to internal successors generally being more successful than external successors, according to the Cox Family Enterprise Centre. [Chairman of the SMU Board of Trustees] and Executive Chairman of Banyan Tree Holdings, Mr Ho Kwon Ping said that there are two levels to succession planning. The first relates to the ownership of the family business and the second is linked to leadership and management of a company. “That the family members will succeed you and that they will be your children then they must learn the skill sets necessary to be good shareholders, to be good owners and they must be good stewards, they must understand governance and strategy and be able to provide the vision for management to follow.” While succession planning was less of a concern, Mr Ho said that Asian families are at an “inflection point where the founder is passing on and the second generation is now thinking about planning for the future.”