UBS Group AG expects most new family-office clients to come from Asia as global banking rivals compete to manage funds and broker deals for the world’s wealthiest clans.

“The number of family offices being set up in Asia far outpaces” the rest of the world, Anurag Mahesh, head of the bank’s family-office operations in Asia, said in an interview. “Wealth here is getting more and more sophisticated and being created at a rather unprecedented pace.”

The collective fortunes of China’s richest people grew by a staggering 65 percent, or $177 billion last year, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, a ranking of the world’s 500 richest people. Asia is now home to 27 percent of the people on the list, second only to North America.

Asia’s ultra-rich are increasingly looking for more complex and global investments as a record number of patriarchs cede control to the next generation. Younger family members whose wealth came from traditional industries such as real estate and natural resources often seek to diversify into biotech and digital businesses, with Silicon Valley of particular interest for those seeking to invest directly, Mahesh said.

Last year, Zurich-based UBS secured a private-funds license in China, allowing the investment unit to start managing money for mainland institutional and high-net-worth investors in Asia’s largest economy.

“In Asia, the clients are less advanced in terms of the sophistication of the family offices structures,” said Sara Ferrari, head of the Global Family Office. “We’re moving as they are moving.”

The firm may add to its global team of about 100 family-office bankers in the Asia region, Ferrari said. In Europe, by contrast, she said it expects to grow by increasing revenues with existing clients. UBS shares traded 0.3 percent higher in Zurich as of 2:11 p.m.

UBS started the Global Family Office unit about seven years ago to sell the firm’s funds and investment-banking advice to the largest and most active wealth clients, partly to prevent bigger investment banks from siphoning off revenue from billionaire families. It has a strong presence where most of the world’s wealth is stored -- in places like Switzerland, Hong Kong and Singapore -- though it lacks the investment-banking clout of JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

Competition is intensifying, with Credit Suisse Group AG also tilting toward wealth management. The Zurich-based rival has a unit dedicated to helping Asian clients set up their own family offices which was set up in 2010, although it does not report separate numbers for this clientele.

Meanwhile, Goldman is aiming to add more than 200 private wealth advisers over the next two years, while JPMorgan offers its large family-office clients an array of services, from access to direct private equity and real estate deals to M&A and brokerage advice.

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