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
Michael Macfarlane opens with the scale of the moment. He cites estimates that more than US$100 trillion of private wealth will pass between generations over the next two decades, nearly half of it in Asia. Marshall Jen, a scholar-practitioner embedded in Asia's family office ecosystem, accepts the scale and questions the tools. Trusts and insurance have been used for a century, he says, yet families still fight, and assets can be frozen while they do. In his view, people fight over emotion more than ownership.
Jen's central proposal is a division of roles, with families acting as strategists and professionals as tacticians. He describes the well-rounded family office as resting on three pillars. These are investment to preserve and grow wealth, spending to nurture social, intellectual, human and spiritual capital, and donation. He contrasts Asian family offices, which he sees as still building identity and investment mandates, often intuitively and emotionally, with a more professionalised and evidence-based Western model. Because entrepreneurial families tend to turn successful models into businesses, he expects the two to converge.
The second half turns to geography and generations. Jen explains the Greater Bay Area, which links Hong Kong and Macau with neighbouring mainland cities, and argues that Hong Kong and Singapore may be building one ecosystem, with Dubai and Abu Dhabi the bigger competitive challenge. He describes Hong Kong's family businesses as built on trust among friends and relatives, and as closely engaged with government policy. On succession, he observes that next-generation executives may hold the title while patriarchs still decide. A small portfolio allocation that proves its worth, he suggests, can be what shifts the family's thinking.
Jen argues that wealth transfer advice remains largely conventional. Families have used trusts and insurance for a century, yet disputes and divorces still occur and assets can be frozen. He believes people fight over emotion more than ownership. He also notes that family members often mean different things by succession, with parents thinking of values and stories and children of leadership transition or asset management.
Jen's model for securing the wealth transfer divides responsibilities. Families should learn much of what professionals know and add their own family knowledge to form a strategy and build alignment. Professionals should understand other disciplines while offering their own expertise. He sees this partnership in Hong Kong's long-established family businesses, whose founders had clear visions and hired professionals who understood them.
Jen considers the term family office overused and often reduced to an investment vehicle. He describes a well-rounded family office as having three pillars. The first is investment to preserve, safeguard and grow wealth. The second is spending to nurture social, intellectual, human and spiritual capital. The third is donation, since he believes a family office ultimately exists to contribute to the family's home.
Jen sees Asian family offices as still doing identity planning and building investment mandates, often investing with friends and family on intuition. Western offices are more professionalised and evidence-based. Entrepreneurial Asian families, he notes, turn successful models into businesses, so single family offices become multi-family offices that report to stakeholders and grow more institutional. For that reason he expects most to converge.
Jen distinguishes between a family office investing in assets and a family office investing in its next generation. Many heirs he works with wear two hats, looking after the family office while running their own ventures, for example in AI. Families may dislike losing money, he says, but the door is open. Backing a next-generation member's venture is, in his view, investing in the future.
Macfarlane cites research that more than two-thirds of Asian family offices are led by next-generation executives averaging 44. Jen notes that patriarchs in their eighties often still make the decisions. Approval takes time, and heirs may fear that a mistake will harm their reputation and inheritance. He suggests that a small allocation, such as 5% of the portfolio, that proves its return can shift family thinking.
Jen describes the Greater Bay Area as nine mainland cities plus Hong Kong and Macau, combining technology and finance, with unlimited travel to Hong Kong for its residents. An advocate for Hong Kong, he questions whether Hong Kong and Singapore are true competitors or co-builders of one Asian ecosystem. In his view, Dubai and Abu Dhabi present the bigger challenge for attracting families.
People are fighting over emotion rather than ownership.
— Marshall Jen, Wealth Office
And I told him the highest level of governance is that you actually trust each other.
— Marshall Jen, Wealth Office
Asian families are very interesting creatures and it's, it's different type of engine but it also is one of the downfall because they do let the emotion take over.
— Marshall Jen, Wealth Office
The next generations are very innovative and they're very open to ideas. … the problem is when are they actually empowered to make certain decisions?
— Marshall Jen, Wealth Office
So I think that's going to be the next model for family offices, that families understand a lot of things, they become strategists and they will outsource or in house hire out a lot of the professional to execute their vision.
— Marshall Jen, Wealth Office
Quotes are taken word for word from the episode transcript.
Jen argues that families should understand much of what their advisers know and combine it with family knowledge to set strategy and build alignment. Professionals should then execute that vision with their expertise. He sees this division of roles in Hong Kong family businesses that have lasted a century or more.
Jen describes three pillars. Investment preserves, safeguards and grows wealth. Spending nurtures the family's social, intellectual, human and spiritual capital. Donation covers philanthropy, which he links to a family office's role in contributing to the family's home and, for some families, to bringing generations into alignment.
Jen describes himself as an advocate for Hong Kong and sees an advantage in its access to the Greater Bay Area. He questions whether Hong Kong and Singapore are really competitors or are jointly building an Asian family office ecosystem, and regards Dubai and Abu Dhabi as the bigger challenge.
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]