On September 19, the 3rd HED Conference of Asia, organized by Finfo Global, concluded successfully in Singapore. The summit received broad support, including Gold Sponsor PPLI Asia; Silver Sponsors IQ-EQ, First Plus, QTX and Going Securities; Bronze Sponsors S&P Global Market Intelligence, Rich Link Management and Tung Yat Securities; Exhibition Sponsor StoneX; Venue Sponsor SGX Group; Contributing Sponsor LTP; and supporting organizations including the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst Association, the Hong Kong Single Family Office Association, the Singapore Family Office Club and the Asia-Pacific CEO Association. The summit gathered industry experts and leaders from top family offices and asset-management institutions worldwide to discuss Asian investment strategies and new trends in wealth management amid a complex global economic environment.
Jason Zhu, Founder and CEO of Finfo Global, delivered a welcome address. He noted that Singapore, as an Asian financial hub, connects Asian and global asset-management markets. Hosting the summit here aimed to build a cross-regional platform focused on asset management and wealth management. Finfo Global has been deeply involved in China’s asset-management and wealth-management sectors for 15 years, serving more than 300 licensed financial institutions and over 2,000 Chinese private funds. The HED Conference began in Shanghai and has gradually expanded to Beijing, Shenzhen, Hong Kong, Singapore, Dubai and other cities, becoming a core bridge between China and the global asset-management field.
The Panel “Macro Hedge Strategies Amidst Southeast Asia Tariff Reshoring,” moderated by Alexandra McGuigan, Head of APAC at Qblue Balanced, featured Bernard Aw, Chief Economist for Asia Pacific at COFACE, and Bliss Chang, Senior Vice President of Securities Trading at the Singapore Exchange Group. From a macro perspective they analyzed trends in industrial-policy adjustments among major Southeast Asian countries and the impact of supply-chain restructuring on regional trade and capital flows. Currently, the relocation of manufacturing capacity and tariff-policy changes are reshaping multinational firms’ regional footprints, requiring investors to pay attention to exchange-rate volatility driven by supply-chain reorganization. With uncertainty becoming the new normal, the ability to build multi-asset, multi-strategy portfolios and to adjust dynamically is especially crucial. In recent years SGX has enriched its derivatives toolkit to provide effective support for institutional investors managing regional market volatility.
Divya Doshi, Managing Director, Sales, Asia & Middle East at IQ-EQ, moderated the panel “Family Office Playbook: Recalibrating Tech & Harvesting Alternatives.” Panelists Roger Zhu, CEO of Winfield Global Capital; Tuck Meng Yee, CIO of JRT Partners; and Nirman Chhabra, Portfolio Manager at Abiman Investment Singapore, discussed family-office investment logic. In the current environment, family offices place greater emphasis on alternative investments to enhance portfolio resilience and diversify return sources; private credit, inflation-hedging assets and high customer-stickiness quality companies are focal points. On technology allocation, family offices commonly leverage IT tools to boost operational efficiency. The speakers cautioned that although alternative asset classes may offer high return potential, investors must be wary of valuation bubbles and mismatch risk, and should establish dynamic risk-control models to avoid possible compliance and valuation issues.
Private credit has attracted increasing attention from investors in recent years and is particularly popular among family offices. The panel “Credit 2.0: Resilience, Liquidity, and Return,” moderated by Lili Wang, Managing Director of Alternative Investments at First Capital Global Management, included Benjamin Choo, Founding Partner of Racson Capital, Veiverne Yuen, Partner at Blauwpark Partners, and Derek Cheung, Co-Head of Alternative Investments at Topaz Family Office. Panelists discussed the evolving positioning, product design and risk management of Asia’s private-credit market. The Asia-Pacific private-credit market is growing in scale and can offer certain return advantages. While pursuing resilience and returns, speakers advised investors to implement differentiated strategies to balance risk control with stable and growing yields.
The panel “ETF & Equity Allocation in a Volatile World,” moderated by Anuraag Gupta, Head of Product for Offshore Wealth Management at Nuvama Private, featured Ana Isabel Gonzalez, Group CIO of Farringdon Asset Management; Yogiraj Nadgauda, COO and Co-Head of Investments at Lazara Capital; Ogar Widjaja, Head of Xtrackers Sales, South East Asia at DWS Group; and Henry Soediarko, Head of Portfolio Management at East West Private Wealth. They noted a dual trend in the ETF industry of “scale expansion” and “product innovation,” with global ETF assets expected to continue growing and product offerings extending from broad-based ETFs to thematic ETFs, factor ETFs and active ETFs. In a macro environment with elevated uncertainty, thematic and factor ETFs can help investors efficiently express sector or style views while retaining liquidity and transparency, making them quality choices for building core holdings. However, investors should beware of overreliance on ETFs and combine them with active management to flexibly respond to market swings.
Kaede Tai, Co-founder and CTO of QTX, delivered a keynote on “The Great Shift: How Crypto and Stablecoins Are Redrawing the Global Financial Map.” Tai pointed out that tokens based on the ERC-3643 protocol have already enabled dynamic embedding of KYC/AML rules, providing a security framework for on-chain tokenization of real-world assets and addressing compliance and trust issues in cross-border circulation. He expects blockchain technology to break down traditional geographic restrictions in finance, optimize asset ownership verification and circulation efficiency, and drive financial services toward greater inclusivity and efficiency.
KC Wong, CEO of PPLI Asia, moderated the panel “Demystifying Private Placement Life Insurance – What Works, and Where,” joined by Stuart Jessop, Chief Underwriting Officer at Advantage Insurance INC; Gobind Sahney, CEO of Providence Life Insurance Company; and Samy Reeb, CEO of PFIS GROUP. They explored how cross-border individuals and families can effectively use PPLI structures for asset protection, succession planning and tax optimization. The panel said PPLI offers strong investment flexibility and meets high-net-worth clients’ intergenerational transfer needs, making it a popular asset-allocation solution in Asia. They also cautioned that while PPLI has multiple advantages, investors must consider costs and legal applicability and should decide under professional advisory.
The panel “Asia Fixed Income: Repricing Risk and Redefining Yield,” moderated by Rena Kwok, Senior Credit Analyst, Asian Financials at Bloomberg Intelligence, included Ryan Liu, President and Partner of BC Capital SG; Jennifer Siu, Head of Structured Credit at First Plus; Jeremy Huang, Senior Vice President, Fixed Income at PineBridge Investments; Henry Hau, CEO of Infinity Family Office; and Cheng King Wai, Responsible Officer of Tung Yat Securities. They discussed opportunities and challenges in Asia’s fixed-income market under geopolitical risks and spread tightening. Amid US-China tariff frictions, exchange-rate and interest-rate volatility and regional political risks, the pricing logic in Asia’s fixed-income market needs to be reassessed. Overall, the market has entered a “selective” phase; investors must control risk, optimize duration and refine portfolios to maintain steady returns amid volatility.
The panel “Beyond Crypto: Real Asset-Backed Digital Funds,” moderated by Cecilia Sha, Founder and CEO of Abacus Asia Wealth Management, brought together Takashi Hayashida, Managing Partner of Taisu Ventures; Alex Toh, Lead, Funds Management at SC Ventures; Lee Kai Yang, Co-founder and CEO of DMZ Finance; and Monica Yuan, Head of Partnerships at LTP. They focused on the development path of real-world asset (RWA) tokenization. Today, some institutions in cooperation with traditional banks have launched tokenized money-market funds. Panelists emphasized that tokenization does not change the fundamental nature of assets; investors still need to understand and study the underlying exposures. Trust and transparency are key, requiring improvements in custody, clearing and trading. Overall, tokenization is seen as an important direction to improve financial efficiency and lower barriers, but future development depends on regulatory clarity and greater institutional participation.
The summit’s closing segment was the awards ceremony for the “2025 Asia JF Wealth & Asset Management Awards,” which recognize institutions, products and individuals in Asian wealth and asset management that have demonstrated outstanding achievement and performance, and highlight innovative and breakthrough asset-management practices in the region. Through continuous selection of industry benchmarks and exemplars, the JF Awards aim to become an important window for insights into the Asian asset-management landscape and its future trends.
Through multi-party dialogue across institutions and regions, the 3rd HED Conference of Asia showcased the innovation vitality and development potential of asset management and wealth management in the Asia-Pacific region. Going forward, Finfo Global will continue to deepen the platform value of the HED Conference and, together with partners, further promote precise alignment between global asset-management resources and Asian market demand, helping the industry anchor its development direction amid uncertainty and supporting high-quality development of Asia’s wealth-management industry.
Statement: This article is based on remarks made by guests at the “3rd HED Conference of Asia” organized by Finfo Global and does not represent the position of Finfo Global. Our primary purpose is information sharing. If the article contains investment-related content, do not use it directly as an investment basis. Markets change rapidly; please think carefully before investing.
