SMU Vice President (Business Development & External Relations) and Academic Director of the Business Families Institute, Associate Professor Annie Koh commented that unlike European families which tend to sell their operating businesses and become “financial families”, Asian families do not seem to be falling into this trap. They see that “wealth can only be grown in new markets, new segments, new businesses,” and if you simply “monetise the old wealth” it will never grow, she said. The important distinction here is between families that want to keep growing their wealth and those who want to cash in their chips. The new Asian families are not people who own a “family business”, but a “business family”. You might have made your money making doorbells, but the doorbells are not the point: the business is.