DURBAN – South Africa, mainly Johannesburg, is Africa's main wealth management hub with $82 billion (R1.2 trillion) in assets under management.
According to the New World Wealth's AfrAsia Bank Africa Wealth Report 2018, about $140bn of African High Net Worth Individual (HNWI) wealth is tied up with wealth managers and private banks.
Usually, wealth managers in Africa target individuals with more than $500 000 in investable assets.
Services that are in high demand from wealth managers include: asset management services, financial planning and inheritance planning.
It is estimated that the African wealth management market will increase by about 7 percent per annum over the next 10 years.
According to the report, the most promising emerging African markets for private banking going forward are countries like Mauritius, Morocco, Angola, Ghana and Kenya.
Spotlight on family offices
Family offices generally provide a more personalised offering than wealth managers and private bank and they are a rapidly growing wealth management sector in Africa and throughout the world.
Some of the services that they offer include managing household staff, property management, philanthropy coordination, investment services among other things.