Family offices and private trusts recorded the strongest growth within the industry, with assets rising 37 per cent to HKD2,125 billion. Seventy-seven per cent of firms reported higher demand for new accounts and asset booking, up from 59 per cent in the previous survey. None reported a decline. Ninety-four per cent of respondents said they were moderately or highly optimistic about the market’s prospects over the next five years.
Connectivity remains the central theme. Seventy-nine per cent of firms identified Greater Bay Area initiatives, including Wealth Management Connect, as critical or moderately important to their offshore Hong Kong business over the next five years. Product breadth ranked as the strongest positive inflow driver. Ninety-one per cent of firms supported wider access to STAR Market and ChiNext shares for qualified professional investors, reflecting continued demand for regulated channels into Mainland growth sectors.
Digital assets are moving from experimentation into mainstream offering. The share of firms actively developing a digital asset trading platform, product range or custody service rose from 16 per cent to 25 per cent. A further 13 per cent already offer these services, while 28 per cent plan to invest in them over the next two to three years. Forty-three per cent of firms have added crypto ETFs or ETPs and 17 per cent have launched or distributed tokenised products.
Artificial intelligence adoption has accelerated. Eighty-eight per cent of firms reported moderate or significant progress in adopting AI, generative AI or agentic AI technologies, up from 56 per cent a year earlier. Most current applications still focus on accelerating existing tasks rather than redesigning operating models. The next phase of value, the report notes, will depend on data integration, workflow re-engineering and scaled operationalisation of proven use cases.
Just a year after we saw Hong Kong firmly back on its growth trajectory, the city has claimed its place as the world’s top cross-boundary wealth management hub. Despite heightened geopolitical uncertainty, clients continue to view Hong Kong as a trusted platform for managing and booking wealth.
Amy Lo, Chairman, PWMA Executive Committee
Ninety-one per cent of firms have increased their focus on next-generation clients. The combination of sustained booking demand, product expansion, digital-asset infrastructure and AI capability points to a market that is still deepening rather than merely recovering.
For private banks, external asset managers and family offices the data carry clear operational implications. Booking jurisdiction decisions continue to favour Hong Kong. Product shelves need to reflect both Greater Bay Area connectivity and the growing allocation interest in digital and tokenised assets. Relationship management capacity will be tested by the simultaneous rise in next-generation clients and the need to integrate AI tools without diluting advice quality. Firms that treat the 2025 numbers as a cyclical peak rather than a structural shift risk under-investing in the capabilities the survey shows clients already expect.
Amy Lo, Chairman of the PWMA Executive Committee, framed the milestone as evidence that clients continue to view Hong Kong as a trusted platform for managing and booking wealth despite geopolitical uncertainty. The task now, she said, is relentless evolution to keep the city competitive, connected and responsive.
The 2026 report shows an industry that has moved past recovery into a new phase of structural demand. The test for the next 12 to 24 months is whether platforms can convert that demand into deeper, more integrated client relationships across generations, asset classes and borders.