The independent wealth management industry in Asia is small relative to its potential. With penetration at roughly five per cent against a three trillion-dollar market, the sector remains a fraction of the size it has reached in the US and Europe. But the trajectory is clear, and the firms that define how the industry scales will be those that move beyond familiar talking points about alignment and into the operational and commercial specifics that separate positioning from performance.
At the recent Hubbis Independent Wealth Management Forum in Hong Kong, Kenny Ho, Founder and Managing Partner of Carret Private Capital, offered a grounded and commercially minded perspective on what it takes to build an independent wealth business that endures. Speaking on the opening panel, Ho addressed the structural advantages of independence, the economics of advice, the challenge of pricing models across different Asian markets, and what will determine which firms thrive over the coming decade.
Key Takeaways
Open Custodianship Is the Real Differentiator: Moving beyond open architecture to working across multiple custodians allows independent firms to match solutions to client needs in ways that no single bank can replicate.
Performance Is Structural, Not Transactional: Better outcomes come not from outperforming on individual investments but from alignment, pricing transparency, and access to a broader range of solutions.
Private Markets Demand Customisation: Clients are increasingly dissatisfied with the same handful of flagship funds offered across every private bank, creating an opportunity for firms that can source more tailored alternatives.
The Pricing Model Must Evolve: The transition from product-driven revenue to explicit advisory fees is essential but uneven across Asia, shaped by generational attitudes and regulatory frameworks.
Talent Is the Bottleneck and the Opportunity: As the independent sector grows, attracting experienced private bankers who are willing to adopt a different model is both the biggest challenge and the clearest competitive advantage.
Beyond Open Architecture: The Custodianship Argument
Ho opened his remarks with a careful distinction that set the tone for his contributions throughout the panel. While the industry frequently discusses open architecture as a hallmark of independence, Ho argued that the more meaningful concept is open custodianship.
“For us to manage, it’s not just managing one particular bank account. It’s multiple bank accounts,” he explained. “Our ability to offer a particular solution depends on what the client needs are, and not every bank resolves any individual need.”
The point is more than semantic. A firm operating on an open architecture basis may still be confined to the product shelf of a single custodian bank. Open custodianship means working across multiple banking relationships to construct solutions that no single institution could deliver on its own.
Ho also cautioned against framing the independent advantage in terms of outperformance. “I hesitate when we say better performance, because it often drives people to try to outperform through specific individual investments,” he said. The advantage is macro-level: it sits in alignment, pricing transparency, and the absence of conflicts that arise when a large share of a bank’s offering originates from its own investment banking division.
“I cannot believe that 40 per cent of that private bank’s offering is from their investment bank,” Ho said. “The whole sense of independence is core to our particular offering.”
Private Markets and the Customisation Gap
Ho identified private markets as a domain where client dissatisfaction with private banking is most visible. The pattern, he suggested, is consistent across institutions. A client seeking real estate exposure through a private bank will almost invariably be directed to a flagship fund from one of a small number of globally recognised managers. The second option will be from another equally familiar name.
“Across all banks, it gets a bit tiring,” Ho observed. “What clients are looking for is a lot more customised solutions, and that’s how we differentiate ourselves.”
For independent firms, sourcing private market opportunities outside standard bank distribution channels is a core commercial proposition. Clients with specific sector preferences, geographic focus, or risk parameters are poorly served by a model that defaults to the same products regardless of circumstance.
The Red Pill: Pricing, Conflicts, and the Fee Transition
When the panel turned to the question of what will separate winners from losers over the next decade, Ho framed his response around the economics of advice and the structural challenge of pricing.
He offered a pharmaceutical analogy to illustrate the choice facing clients. “A doctor gives you a blue pill or a red pill,” he said. “The blue pill is: here’s a medicine that came from pharmaceuticals. You don’t have to pay me anything, but whatever the pharmaceutical company gives me, I’m going to get a cut. The red pill is: you have to pay for my advice, but I’m going to find you the best medicines regardless of what the incentives are out there, because I don’t take any incentives.”
The analogy captures the central tension in the independent wealth model. The red pill, explicit advisory fees in exchange for unconflicted advice, is the model that Ho believes the industry must move toward. But the transition is neither straightforward nor uniform.
Regulatory frameworks play a role. Asia does not yet have an equivalent of MiFID, the European directive that imposed stricter transparency requirements on advisory fees and inducements. Without comparable regulatory pressure, the shift toward fee-based advice relies more heavily on client demand and adviser conviction.
Generational dynamics are equally significant. Ho noted that first-generation wealth creators in Asia tend to resist paying explicit advisory fees because they see themselves as the primary decision-makers. “First generations tend not to trust anyone because they think they’re the smartest guys in the room, so they want to have a hand in decision-making,” he said. In Europe, where wealth is often in the fifth or sixth generation, the acceptance of paid professional advice is far more established.
Market-by-market variation adds a further layer of complexity. Ho observed that securing a fixed management fee is considerably easier in some Asian jurisdictions than in others. “It is a lot easier in the Philippines to get a fixed management fee versus, say, China,” he noted. These differences mean that independent firms operating across multiple markets must adapt their pricing models to local conditions rather than applying a single template.
Talent, Growth, and the Expanding Pipeline
Ho framed the growth outlook in quantitative terms. Independent wealth currently represents roughly five per cent penetration against a three trillion dollar addressable market in Asia, compared to approximately 35 per cent in the US and Europe. While private banking in the region is growing at around 12 per cent per year, Ho estimated that independent wealth will grow at closer to 20 per cent.
Capturing this opportunity depends on talent. “We look for and we try to hire the best people in the marketplace,” Ho said. “Because the industry for us is growing, we’re seeing a lot more private bankers who are willing to look at this particular model.” The willingness of experienced bankers to leave established institutions reflects growing confidence in the viability of the independent model.
Adapting to Win
Ho’s contributions painted a picture of an industry at a pivotal moment. The growth runway is significant, but it will not benefit all participants equally. Firms that can articulate a clear pricing model, attract the right talent, and deliver genuinely customised solutions across multiple custodians are best positioned to capture the opportunity.
“As we adjust the pricing model, which is critical as the markets get more mature, the outlook for our industry is looking pretty good,” Ho concluded. The underlying message is direct: the independent wealth model in Asia is no longer an experiment but a business proposition with a definable market, a growing client base, and, for those who execute well, a compelling commercial trajectory.