SINGAPORE - Family offices in Singapore outperformed their global and regional peers last year, making average returns of 6.9 per cent last year.

This is higher than the 6.1 per cent average returns seen by family offices globally and the 6.3 per cent average across Asia Pacific, according to the latest Global Family Office Report by Campden Wealth Research and Swiss private bank UBS.

This is because, on average, Singapore family offices tend to place more of their portfolio in private equity, which performed very well last year.

Over 30 per cent of the average Singapore-based family office portfolio was placed in private equity investments last year, compared with 28 per cent across Asia Pacific.

The returns of 6.3 per cent enjoyed by Asia Pacific family offices last year came a close second to Europe's 6.4 per cent returns.

North American family offices had returns of 5.8 per cent, while family offices in emerging markets saw returns of 4.9 per cent.

Overall, global family offices made a return of 6.1 per cent over the year, lower than the 8.5 per cent returns they enjoyed in 2013.

"While there have been adjustments to allocations into more risky assets, this did not materially impact the overall performance. Instead, the lower growth reflects disappointments in asset categories, notably in the single most important category of equities," the report said.