Asia’s chronic talent shortage has become a key constraint to growth in wealth management in a region where the wealthy are forecast to more than double their assets to $42trn (£33.1trn, €39.5trn) in a decade from $17.4trn today, according to consultancy Capgemini.
But the traditional push to address the shortage by hiring from Europe has come to an end, said Abimanu Jeyakumar, a headhunter for private wealth management at Carlton Senior Appointments in Hong Kong.
“Transferring people from the US, Europe and the UK has not worked well because the cultural competencies are so vastly different,” Jeyakumar said.
“European clients tend to work more on a discretionary portfolio mandate where they trust the relationship manager and the advisory team to take care of their assets whereas in Asia the clients want to be involved in absolutely every decision-making process.”
"Nobody we know would go to Hong Kong now. [It] is seen as fully Chinese now and it is difficult to get along culturally if you do not speak Mandarin or Cantonese."
Chinese language barrier
Jenkins added that Asia was often viewed in a similar way to the Middle East in the sense that there was “not enough rigour there”, adding that “anyone moving there will be working with less talent”.
In Asia, Singapore is seen as the most favourable location.
“Nobody we know would go to Hong Kong now,” Jenkins said. “Hong Kong is seen as fully Chinese now and it is difficult to get along culturally if you do not speak Mandarin or Cantonese.”
Thomas Stemp, a managing director at Stemp International in Hong Kong, a boutique executive search firm specialising in asset and wealth management, said the wealthy in Asia wanted to speak to the person managing their personal wealth in their own language – or even dialect.
“They will want to work with people that they can easily understand and minimise any chance of making poor investment decisions as a result of key risks being lost in translation,” Stemp said.
There is also broad cultural diversity in Asia, and it typically takes foreigners a long time to appreciate the cultural sensitivities.
The relatively small number of expatriate client advisors who have managed to be successful in these positions have typically been in the region for many years, in roles which Stemp said had given them long-term client exposure and cultural understanding.
One false assumption is that most candidates would move to Asia from abroad if the compensation package was generous, said Matthew Jenkins, a partner at Syracuse Partners in London, an executive search firm focusing on senior appointments in asset and wealth management.
Senior candidates are particularly reluctant to relocate to Asia despite better compensation.
“What we have seen is that there is actually a flow the other way,” Jenkins said. “We have had long phone calls this year with people in Asia who were trying to relocate to London.”
