Raffles Consulting Services
Prepare a GIP Option C family office file covering net investible assets, Singapore AUM, listed-equity deployment, professionals and renewal evidence.
A GIP Option C family office application requires more than forming a Singapore single family office. EDB’s current overview states a Singapore-based SFO with at least S$200 million in assets under management and at least S$50 million deployed into specified equities listed on Singapore approved exchanges. The applicant needs reconciled asset and commitment evidence from application through renewal.
Separate personal assets from Singapore AUM
Build an asset inventory by owner, custodian, instrument, currency, valuation date and supporting statement. Identify net investible assets using the current factsheet definition and keep real estate separate where excluded. Then map the assets intended for management by the Singapore SFO. Do not treat family wealth, applicant net investible assets and SFO AUM as interchangeable totals.
The current GIP factsheet sets applicant categories, investment options and detailed criteria. The EDB GIP overview summarises Option C and the renewal commitments. Current EDB assessment, ICA requirements and final approval control the application; an adviser calculation is not acceptance.
Control the S$50 million deployment
Create a trade and position ledger for the qualifying equities, approved exchange, execution date, settlement, custodian, market value and ownership. Define how cash, corporate actions, disposals, losses and replacement investments will be handled. Verify the instrument and exchange against current written terms before counting it. Avoid using a label or ticker alone as eligibility evidence.
Reconcile bank transfers, broker confirmations and custody statements to the family-office accounts. Separate the minimum deployed amount from the wider SFO portfolio. Set alerts before a disposal or transfer that could affect the maintained position. Preserve dated valuations and source documents because market movements and portfolio changes can make a later snapshot difficult to explain.
Calendar professionals and renewal commitments
Map the Singapore SFO organisation, roles, decision authority and hiring plan. EDB’s overview states that by the fifth year of PR, Option C requires at least five additional family-office professionals, including at least three Singapore citizens, plus maintenance of the specified S$50 million deployment. Record the approved baseline and test each person against the actual condition.
Use the family-office governance cornerstone to connect ownership, investment authority, controls and continuity. Maintain a renewal calendar for residence, staffing, AUM, deployment and evidence. Do not promise PR approval or renewal, and do not rely on an application receipt as proof that any substantive condition is satisfied.
Turn the decision into a controlled file
Use a dated decision record that identifies the applicant, business need, current official source, chosen route, responsible owner, costs, milestones and evidence. Separate facts already verified from forecasts and assumptions. A catalogue listing, supplier statement, consultant recommendation or portal acknowledgement does not establish approval. The company remains responsible for its declarations and commercial decision.
Give each quotation, contract, invoice, payment and deliverable a stable reference. Preserve earlier versions and explain material changes instead of silently replacing them. Where the authority, tax adviser, auditor or another professional must decide a point, record the open question and obtain the required view. Do not convert uncertainty into a confident eligibility statement.
Review before commitment and again before closeout
Run four reviews: suitability, authority, implementation and closeout. At suitability, test the entity, activity and business outcome. Before commitment, freeze the proposed scope, vendor and financial assumptions. During implementation, compare actual work with approved terms. At closeout, reconcile deliverables, accepted results, invoices, full payment, operating evidence and obligations that continue.
Name the person who may approve each stage and the records that person must see. Procurement should not treat a draft application as permission to contract. A project team should not treat supplier completion as company acceptance. Finance should not treat a submitted claim as cash received. Clear status words prevent accidental commitments and weak reporting.
Handle exceptions without rewriting history
Maintain an exception log for changed facts, delayed milestones, supplier variations, cost movements, missing records and failed tests. State the effect on scope, eligibility, timing and expected value. If an authority decision or formal variation is required, use the published route before relying on the change. Silence and helpdesk receipt are not approval.
If a material defect appears, pause the affected acceptance, filing or claim item. Keep original evidence, assign corrective action and set a review date. Do not backdate records, move costs between categories or adjust a baseline after seeing the result. A candid exception with an owned resolution is more credible than a clean-looking file that cannot explain what happened.
Plan handovers before the original project team disperses. The handover should identify the current version, source locations, system access owner, next review date, open exceptions and any condition that continues after payment or filing. Restrict personal, financial and commercially sensitive records to authorised users, while giving each responsible owner enough information to perform the assigned control. Record the external event that should trigger an earlier review, such as a changed programme page, revised authority letter, supplier failure or material business change.
Verify the final outcome independently
Ask someone who did not prepare the final pack to compare the decision, current official source, approved terms, deliverables, payments and operating evidence. Recalculate totals and sample source records. The reviewer should be able to reproduce the conclusion without relying on the preparer’s memory. Record unresolved points with named owners and dates.
Use the Singapore family-office governance cornerstone for the wider decision and keep this article as the narrower operating guide. After submission, preserve the receipt and reconcile questions, adjustments and the final registered or paid outcome. Continue any reporting, retention, asset-use or other condition that survives closeout.
Practical review checklist
- Asset ownership evidenced
- Net investible assets classified
- Singapore AUM reconciled
- Listed-equity deployment tracked
- Year-five commitments calendared
A GIP Option C family office file is credible when net investible assets, Singapore AUM, qualifying listed-equity deployment, staff commitments and renewal evidence reconcile without using one headline total for different tests.