The Big Take
Asia’s Family Office Frenzy Comes With Plenty of Imposters
A rapidly growing wealth management industry is spurring a rise in allegations of fake family offices from Singapore to Hong Kong, forcing many in the sector to go “full CSI” to weed out imposters.
Illustration: Mengxin Li
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As Edoardo Collevecchio was getting ready to speak at a conference in Singapore, he recognized the family office that employed a fellow panelist. But as they exchanged small talk, Collevecchio noticed something was off — the executive couldn’t answer basic questions about his firm and didn’t even recognize the name of an owner.
It soon became clear the ‘executive’ had never worked for the family office directly, and had misrepresented his status. An awkward snip later, the panel went ahead — minus one speaker.