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The trustee of 2030 is going to have to work with digital assets, so firms need to settle on frameworks for handling the class as quickly as they can, a group of industry experts has agreed.
Ocorian – the specialist global provider of services to high-net-worth individuals and family offices, financial institutions, asset managers and corporates – gathered lawyers, accountants, platform builders, investment managers, advisors and bankers for roundtable discussions in London, Mauritius and the UAE as part of its 2030 Trustee series.
The roundtables built on research carried out by Ocorian in 2023 and discussed the main trends facing the trustee of today and the future: philanthropy, succession planning, ESG and digital assets. The latter, all participants agreed, is the one which will alter the landscape of the industry the most up to 2030.
“Digital assets aren’t a trend or fad; they’re here to stay. The industry is now 15 years old, it’s a US$2tn business and there are 560 million crypto accounts worldwide; those are not the numbers of an industry that’s going to fade out of fashion,” Ocorian’s newly published 2030 Trustee Roundtable Report states.
The report outlines that the maturation of a generation of digital natives and the younger generation’s appetite for greater risk in search of returns are the main reasons for the rise in popularity of digital assets, and highlights that the industry needs to respond to this demand.
“The figures show that digital is here to stay; the question is whether the private client industry can adapt quickly enough to become the trusted advisors who these clients turn to,” said Ben Grolimund of Rain – a crypto-exchange platform in the Middle East, one of the roundtable participants.
Regulators around the world are starting to respond, the report states. The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) expanded the scope of its regulated payment services framework in April 2024, amending the law to govern digital payment tokens; in South Korea, an act regulating the cryptocurrency market came into force in July 2024; and the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCAR) is being implemented in two stages in 2024.
Leevyn Isabel, Commercial Director at Ocorian, said: “Private clients have always sought privacy and convenience, and digital assets can provide them with that to some extent, so it’s likely to become a more popular asset class up to 2030. The watching brief for our industry is to see how regulation, especially vis-a-vis transparency, responds and starts to manage the class. Whatever happens, it’s a huge growth area and will totally shape the private client ecosystem to 2030 and beyond.”
Ocorian’s report is available in full online and contains insights on trends including the importance of governance, the dynamic approach of the next generation to wealth generation and a more structured approach to philanthropy, as well as practical tips for trustees.
Annerien Hurter, Global Head of Private Client at Ocorian, said: “Our 2030 Trustee Roundtable Report brings together some of the leading voices in our industry to take a holistic look at the trends that will shape our profession. We’re grateful to everyone who took part and are pleased to share what we believe is a fantastic resource for practitioners and clients alike. We’re going to witness some significant changes over the next six years, with digital assets at the forefront of that, and it’s never too early to adapt and prepare.”
Pictured top: Annerien Hurter.
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