Extremely wealthy people from Europe and the Americas have long considered the East as an option where to preserve their fortunes. But only recently have they started opening family offices – private companies that manage their investments placed in the region.

Italian and other ultra-rich families are moving their assets to Singapore by setting up family offices. Therefore, the state is often called the Switzerland of Asia, reports Reuters.

“Because Asia has been a place where we’ve been investing very heavily – more than 50 percent of our assets are in Asia for the last 15 years – we feel a need to come closer,” says Federico Spinola.

Since the 1470s, the prominent Spinola family of Genoa has been opening offices around the world, including Barcelona, where it collaborated with Christopher Columbus.

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