This publication brings latest news of moves and hires in the Asia-Pacific wealth management sector.

Carret Private Investments (Asia), an affiliate of Carret Asset Management, a New York-based investment manager, has appointed two veteran wealth management professionals, David Lam and Calvin Hsu.
  
Lam joins Carret Private Investments’ asset management subsidiary as chairman of its advisory board. With more than 34 years of experience in the financial industry, he has held a range of roles, most recently as head of North Asia for Coutts Private Bank and head of GAM for the Asia-Pacific region. Lam was educated in the US with a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and an MBA from the University of Southern California. He will be based in Hong Kong, according to a statement today.
 
Hsu joins Carret Private Investments’ wealth management affiliate, QL Asset Management Company, as partner and head of Greater China. He brings over 28 years of experience with various international banks in Asia and the US. He spent much of his financial career working for Citibank, most recently as regional head for Citi Wealth Advisors and previously in senior wealth management roles at Salomon Smith Barney. Prior to this, he was managing director and head of Hong Kong for Merrill Lynch Global Wealth Management. Hsu graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and Political Economy of Industrial Societies from the University of California, Berkeley. He will be based in Hong Kong.

“They join at an important time as we continue to grow our Asian multi-family office business, particularly in response to the needs of the Greater China market. Their deep base of knowledge and experience in the asset management and wealth management industries will greatly expand our capabilities to attract and service high net worth families to our company,” said Kenneth Ho, a managing partner of Carret Private Investments (Asia).

The firm later set out its business strategy and thoughts on investments to WealthBriefingAsia in an interview.

“Our whole value proposition [at Carret] is where [we] have customised solutions for ultra-high net worth clients,” Ho told this publication. “We are supplementing our client portfolios by finding outstanding alternative asset class deals,” he said, giving examples of real estate, private equity and hedge funds.

Hsu, meanwhile, added: “We put ourselves in clients’ shoes and negotiate with banks to find the right providers. Moreover, Carret is backed by several UHNW families and our clients benefit from seeing the same investment opportunities and deal flow that they do.”

Unlike most EAMs in Hong Kong, who are paid retrocessions from banks, an increasing number of our clients prefer a structure where Carret charges a fixed fee plus a fee for performance. Any retrocessions are rebated to the client. “Most clients are willing to pay a performance fee to truly align our interests,” Hsu continued.

“We continue to see great opportunities in real estate related investments, even against a backdrop of rising interest rates," he said.

With hedge funds, Hsu said, there have been problems of weak performance in the US/Europe sector. In Asia, however, he said his firm has access to a number of smaller hedge funds that have been stronger and more enticing for investors. Hsu agreed, however, that some of the negativity towards higher hedge funds fees is warranted particularly given the disappointing returns of many of the larger hedge funds in the past several years.

“By identifying smaller hedge funds with outstanding track records and working with them at an early stage, Carret is able to negotiate substantially lower management fees,” he said.