Independent media for the global private client world
Wealth Office is a long-form interview series with the founders, families and private capital holders reshaping the world. Filmed in London's great rooms. Published across Western and Chinese platforms.
The guest's chairEvery Wealth Office conversation is filmed on location in London. The chair is the only seat a guest is offered.
The Wealth Office audience this week
Subscribers and followers across all platforms
Checked 12 Oct 2026. Updated every Monday.
What we are building
Wealth Office is building the independent media brand for the families and principals who hold private capital, and for the advisers, institutions and creators who serve them. Long-form conversations filmed in London's great rooms, published in six languages across Western and Chinese platforms, and organised into the ideas that shape how wealth is held, passed on and put to work.
Wealth Office Insights
Essays drawn from what Wealth Office guests have said on the record. New essays follow every new episode.
News
Briefs on billionaires, family offices and private capital from Bloomberg, Forbes, the South China Morning Post and more. All news
Series architecture
Both series are filmed to the same production standard, in the same rooms, by the same team.
Editorial · Never sponsoredOne-on-one conversations exclusively with private capital-holding principals, authors and academics. The focus is their perspective, and how private capital is building the new world across business, technology, philanthropy and culture.
Exchange · Sometimes sponsoredTwo globally recognised leaders explore one subject where power, risk and long-term consequence intersect. Issue-led dialogue that stress-tests an idea or proposition.
Wealth Office X is where paid collaboration lives. It is always editorially led, never an advertisement in interview form.
The recurring questions
Ranked by how often each theme recurs across the episode library. Each theme has its own page that grows with every new episode.
In the chair
Every guest has a profile page drawing together their episodes, clips and the ideas they put on the record.
Behind the camera
The hosts, producers and strategists who make Wealth Office, in London, Hong Kong and Mumbai. Full biographies
From the comments
Real comments left under Wealth Office episodes on YouTube, quoted exactly as written. Collected weekly; a comment appears only after the team approves it.
Staging Twelve real comments selected for your approval. Commenter names are not shown.
Hosts
Based in London, Michael is a close adviser to some of the world's most ambitious private capital holders, with particular depth across Asia's major business families and family offices. His work sits at the intersection of media, reputation and the relationships shaping this era of private wealth. He is Principal Partner of Michael Macfarlane Associates, which produces Wealth Office.
About the seriesBased in Mumbai. Former South Asia Bureau Chief for the Daily Telegraph and host of The Diplomat's Beyond the Indus podcast, with over a decade advising UHNWIs and family offices across India and South Asia.
Based in Hong Kong. Moves between Western and Greater China circles in English, Mandarin and Cantonese, with long-standing relationships across Asia's family office and private client world.
Published in long, mid and short form
One filmed session becomes a long-form episode, mid-length clips and short-form cuts in English and Mandarin.
Collaboration partners
Wealth Office X places a firm's expertise inside a trusted, independent private client channel, with long-form authority, multi-platform distribution and content built for how AI now recommends people and firms.
Wealth Office Insights
Essays on private capital, family wealth and the forces reshaping the private client world, drawn from what Wealth Office guests have said on the record.
Episodes
Long-form episodes from both series, with an overview, key ideas and verified quotes for each.
Episode overview
Elaine Chow runs a single family office in Hong Kong, an institution she set up after working in the family business and seeing her brother prepare to leave it. In this conversation with Michael Macfarlane, she describes a philosophy inherited from her grandfather, who came through exile, war and hardship to settle the family in Hong Kong, started a school for families of little means and was, in her words, a very good steward of resources. That idea of stewardship runs through everything she says about money, investment and family.
On investment, Chow describes a mix of steady, income-producing holdings, value-led real estate bought when cycles bottom out and later sold to institutions, and an allocation of less than 10% to riskier opportunities such as pre-IPO technology. She sees opportunity in repurposing Hong Kong's distressed offices for medical or experiential uses and in build-to-rent residential. She also argues that a family office can serve family members who do not want to work in the family business, giving them a vehicle to pursue the causes they care about.
A large part of the conversation concerns purpose. Chow co-hosts intimate fireside chats where family offices examine philanthropic organisations with the rigour of investment due diligence, and she suggests that patriarchs give younger family members sums to steward from their teens. She grounds this in her faith and a belief that families are stewards of what they hold. The discussion closes on Hong Kong itself, which she sees as a financial and talent hub that benefits from common law, accessible business conditions, deal flow, a thriving art market and links with the Greater Bay Area.
Chow traces her approach to her grandfather, who supported a large extended family and remained upbeat about sharing his legacy after settling in Hong Kong. He started a school that asked families of little means for only a nominal fee. Her family's view, she says, is that whatever has been accumulated beyond what is needed should be shared with the community, without shaming the rich or discriminating against the poor.
Chow argues family offices should hold steady, relatively low-yield investments that provide cash flow, such as companies with very good balance sheets. She stresses that this is active work. In bad times such companies may need refinancing, and a significant investor must engage with the banks. Her office keeps less than 10% in riskier opportunities, including pre-IPO technology, often alongside family offices with deeper sector expertise.
Trinity looks for markets where the economic cycle is bottoming out, borrowing costs are low and assets are distressed, then adds value and exits, as it has done in Sydney and London. Chow sees current opportunities in converting Hong Kong's distressed offices into medical or experiential spaces, in below-market residential, and in build-to-rent, which she describes as steady income that also houses families.
In the Chinese context, Chow says, everyone in the family works for the family business. Some family members are not motivated by it. A family office can create vehicles that let them pursue their passions, such as caring for the sick or fundraising for hospitals, and draw on the family's connections and peers to influence the wider community for good.
With a business partner she describes as a champion of philanthropy, Chow hosts Jeffersonian-style dinners for eight to ten family offices on issues such as illiteracy, human trafficking, disadvantaged youth, special needs and ageing. The aim is to help families vet the many NGOs seeking support. Vetted organisations are showcased and examined in the way an investor would dissect a company.
Chow suggests patriarchs allocate sums of 100,000 to 500,000 to teenagers, and one to five million to family members aged roughly 25 to 30, for philanthropy or investment, with a showcase of the results. She wants heirs to see themselves as stewards who hold wealth temporarily before passing it on. There is no single recipe, she says, so children should be groomed early according to their gifts.
Chow regards Hong Kong as both part of China and an important international city with favourable taxation, accessible business set-up, common law and strong deal flow. She says the chairman of the Hong Kong exchange told her the city now has over 300 IPOs a year. She sees the Greater Bay Area bringing younger talent as Hong Kong ages, and the city growing as an art marketplace.
So we believe that whatever we accumulated in the past that has extra should be shared to the community.
— Elaine Chow, Wealth Office
It's not just passive investing. There's a lot of work to do.
— Elaine Chow, Wealth Office
It's like dissecting a company doing due diligence, but you do it for the philanthropy organisations.
— Elaine Chow, Wealth Office
And what we want the next generation to look at wealth is not as owners, but also stewards.
— Elaine Chow, Wealth Office
We're becoming like Switzerland and in a good way.
— Elaine Chow, Wealth Office
Quotes are taken word for word from the episode transcript.
Chow describes a blend of steady, cash-generating holdings, value-led real estate bought when cycles bottom out, and less than 10% in riskier opportunities such as pre-IPO technology. She stresses active involvement, including engaging with banks when portfolio companies need refinancing, and co-investing in technology alongside family offices with more sector expertise.
Chow and her business partner host small, Jeffersonian-style dinners for family offices, each focused on an issue such as illiteracy. They showcase NGOs that have been vetted for good use of their proceeds and discuss how the work is done. She likens the process to dissecting a company in due diligence, applied to philanthropic organisations.
She suggests patriarchs give teenagers sums to direct into philanthropy or investments and present the results, with larger sums in their late twenties. Her aim is for heirs to regard themselves as stewards. She says there is no single recipe and encourages families to expose children early to business meetings and develop their particular gifts.
News
Weekly briefs on billionaires, family offices and private capital, drawn from Bloomberg, Forbes, the South China Morning Post and other leading titles, with context for families and their advisers.
About
Wealth Office is an independent media platform built for the private client world, launched in September 2025 and produced in London.
What Wealth Office is
Wealth Office explores the structural forces reshaping the private client world: the rise of private capital, the globalisation of family wealth, the shift of ambition and innovation toward Asia, the psychology of intergenerational stewardship, and the responsibility that comes with significant capital.
The series speaks with the principals themselves: founders, inheritors and long-term holders of capital, together with the authors and academics who study them. It does not cover market commentary or portfolio management. It asks how private wealth is used, governed and passed on, and what it is building.
Wealth Office is hosted by Michael Macfarlane and produced by a dedicated team in London and Hong Kong. Full biographies follow below.
Ultra-high-net-worth individuals, business-owning families, family offices, next-generation wealth holders, founders, and the lawyers, trustees and advisers who serve them.
Michael Macfarlane, Principal Partner of Michael Macfarlane Associates, is the principal host. Joe Wallen in Mumbai and Stephanie Chen in Hong Kong join as hosts.
The Wealth Office series is never sponsored. Wealth Office X episodes may involve a paid collaboration partner and are always editorially led.
On YouTube at @wealthofficeofficial, with clips on Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, Substack, RedNote and Bilibili (as 财富办公室), and audio on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music.
Hosts and team
A London-based team with deep relationships across Asia's family offices, and fluency in English, Mandarin and Cantonese.
Wealth Office XWhere paid collaboration lives. Always editorially led.
Collaboration partners
Firms that serve the private client world collaborate with Wealth Office to own a theme: credible, independent, long-form video in front of the audience that matters, in the format AI-driven search now rewards.
The full collaboration brief, packages and audience data. Approved partners receive a one-time sign-in code by email.
Open the partner briefFor collaborations, Wealth Office X, interviews and press, write to us. Tell us about your firm, the theme you would like to own and your timing.
Email [email protected]