Welcome, Rainbow Hui! First things first, please introduce yourself and your business!
Rainbow Hui: I am the Founder of the Jia Family Office, and I am on a mission to make the life of High-Net-Worth families with a global vision and mentality a lot easier.
I was born in Mainland China and raised in Hong Kong, but I also spent a lot of time abroad so I have an Asian heart with a western mindset – that gives me a unique perspective when it comes to Asian families’ cross-border needs and cross-cultural expectations, and to building wealth transmission peace of mind for our clients.
Please tell us more about Jia Family Office. Where are you based? How do you operate? How about your team?
Rainbow Hui: We are based in Hong Kong, with teams in China (Nanjing and Shanghai), the United States (California), the UK, and Australia where we are just getting started.
The core team – including myself – comes from a very strong insurance background, because insurance is all about peace of mind and this is what we are good at creating. The global team members rather come from niche expert fields, such as immigration law and services, patrimony-focused lawyers, so forth, and so on.
Let’s talk big picture. What problem does Jia Family Office solve out there?
Rainbow Hui: Jia@Family Office focuses on creating asset transmission peace of mind for High-Net-Worth families with global ambitions.
In plain English, we don’t focus on typical wealth management services like every other family office out there – we focus on making sure those families will be able to make the most of their wealth whenever they need it, whether that’s ten years from now when the young generation goes to school, or later on when that generation needs to pass things on to their own children.
The entrepreneurs and the families we work with are busy with successful businesses and empires behind them, but their personal and family lives tend to be less secured than their business assets. So, that is where we step in.
For instance, having a vision for your business is important and a typical must-have, but nobody thinks about building family visions and arrangements for the future and that creates problems later on.
Does the family want to stay local or international? How does that work from an immigration perspective? How to secure assets in robust legal structures so that they can be relied upon later on? How to transmit family assets to the next generation when needed? And of course, how to maintain family synergies as time passes and family branches spread?
What solution do you bring, then?
Rainbow Hui: Jia@Family Office provides family clients with a range of solutions designed to solve all the complexities related to asset transmission, but we do it with a family feel. Typically, our clients could go to their lawyer directly, pay for the paperwork and be done. They however come to us, because we know them, we know their family, and we are the human link between them and whatever technical expert they need to do what they need to do.
For instance, we work a lot on mindset development and education with regards to succession planning, because that kind of planning is not just a matter of legal contract. It requires a family culture and that culture has to be cohesive, while being open enough to bring the different members together durably. We typically arrange that type of thing, with highly private workshops, coaching and get-togethers tailored for each family.
Tax planning is also a topic we get involved with because large families – especially in Mainland China and Asia – tend to have more than one nationality and passport. We understand that, so we work on planning and optimizing taxation with very astute immigration planners capable of explaining rules and guidelines to families who depend on information to expand and make their next moves.
Last but not least, we provide very innovative Second Generation Trainings designed to make families think about how they will pass traditions and wealth to next generations. Every generation has to step down sooner or later, so we do our best to make that transition efficient and smooth. Part of the discussion happens with the former generation, the goal being to pass on. Of course, the discussion also needs to involve the next generation, and the stake there is to identify their own priorities and values so that things can shift peacefully.
Market-wise, what makes Jia Family Office different from the competition?
Rainbow Hui: The Jia Family Office is a very unique solution for High-Net-Worth families in Asia, because traditionally family offices have exclusively focused on wealth management and financial management. While we call ourselves a family office, we are more interested in the Family side than in the financial office side, and we focus on making their lives easier by connecting them with the right cross-border environment.
We are also very proud to be leading experts when it comes to cultural and mentality management, from East to West. There is no other option these days, the new generations are open to the world and it is our mission to guide them there. So much more than a family office!
Can you illustrate this with an example of how Jia Family Office made an Impact on a client?
Rainbow Hui: An entrepreneur once came to us looking for some help, not because of his business, not because of his investment needs, not because of tax issues and not about succession planning matters – but because he worried about passing everything on to his children in a smooth way.
He never had much advice on career and entrepreneurship, but his son came to him asking for help about university choice, living abroad, and becoming a global citizen. Being a Chinese businessman with limited global experience, he had no real tips to offer but he knew he needed to support his son so we supported him with international cultural management and career coaching, but also with guidance on global university choices and family asset allocation down the road. That made a difference no typical family office was able to make.
What stage of development have you reached? What can you tell us about the next steps? Anything exciting?
Rainbow Hui: Our core team originates from the insurance industry so we had to come up with a solid model capable of offering peace of mind for high-Net-Worth clients. Our model creates traction with clients but also with insurance companies and other family offices, who interestingly come to us because we are complementary rather than competitors. We share the name, but the offering varies and that makes us grow!
We are currently based in Hong Kong, but we progressively open representative offices around the world, mostly where the Mainland Chinese families live and spend their time. We are in Europe and North America already, Australia is being opened now, the Middle East could be next.
Let’s talk about entrepreneurship. Looking back, what was the most obvious challenge you had to overcome when you started that business?
Rainbow Hui: When I look back to three years ago, everything looked difficult, to be honest with you. I was successful in the insurance industry but wanted to develop a new model to answer needs from my clients that no insurance broker was providing, but I wasn’t sure about where to start. Positioning was difficult, business planning looked impossible, values definition and brand DNA were out of my comfort zone – everything needed to be created from scratch.
Beyond the business model challenge, I also had to think about building a team – which meant finding the right people but also developing a message and a pitch people would relate to and find attractive. I’m not even talking about the challenge of training those people in parallel to building the rest…
And the least obvious?
Rainbow Hui: The least obvious challenge was self-confidence and the impostor syndrome. Jia was a very unique model and I was trying to create change, so at the very beginning I was very worried about not being good enough to get the job done. Also, I was an insurance broker so I always had the support of a large organization behind me, so I also had to figure out how to start doing everything on my own and that was extremely challenging.
I mostly dealt with these fears by surrounding myself with people who managed to make me solve problem after problem. I started with an entrepreneur friend of mine who pushed me to try and dare, then I worked with business coaches (Philippe Bonnet & Antoine Martin) to create a challenging and supporting work environment around me. They guided me through my vision and mission statements, we created a business model and we defined the Jia core values with the team (after hiring the team).
All these experiences gave me an important reminder in life: don’t just lay on your bed dreaming, make it happen by doing instead of thinking. That’s very much aligned with a very classic story in Chinese literature that most kids know: Journey to the West, published in the 16th century and which tells the story of a Tang Dynasty Buddhist monk (Tang Sanzang) who had to travel to the western regions to obtain Buddhist sacred tests. He couldn’t achieve his vocation just by dreaming but had to step out of his comfort zone. I strongly believe in that mindset.
What does it take to be a business owner or an entrepreneur these days?
Rainbow Hui: Oh. Being a business owner is not a very funny thing because you are the owner of your own business and you don’t have any excuse like an employee. You need to think permanently about whether or not you have enough money to pay your staff and invest, you cannot be lazy, you cannot expect anyone else to get things done if you don’t do them, you can’t really be on holiday because your mind is always busy with something… I found that coaching helped me work a lot more on my business rather than into it however, and that was key to building the system we now have into place.
Once you manage to structure things up as a system, things get in place and your life becomes a lot more fun to live. It’s a little bit like seeing a baby grow – fun, tiring, then wiser and more autonomous as time passes.
Would you share tips as to how you manage to deal with the hurdles of being an entrepreneur? Any routines or hacks worth sharing?
Rainbow Hui: As I said before I built Jia in parallel to my insurance job so it took me two years to finish my company basics, like building up a convincing website, WeChat Public, or a vision and mission statement. Our company core values and our company structure and business model also took time.
I found these things very difficult to operate on my own, and creating a circle around me, with entrepreneurs and coaches was the most efficient thing I’ve done. Doing things on your own makes no sense, you have to open up and rely on others to get things done.
Speaking of tips & hacks, have you read any good books on business recently? What were the main takeaways?
Rainbow Hui: I loved reading “What it takes – Lesson in the Pursuit of Excellence” by Stephen A. Schwarzman – CEO and Co-Founder of Blackstone.
That bit really resonated with me:
“I rarely take notes in meetings. I just pay very close attention to what the other person is saying and the way he or she is saying. If I can, I try to find some point of connection, an area of common ground, a shared interest, or experience that turn a professional encounter into a more persona one. Listening closely and watching the way people talk… the harder the problem and the scarcer the solution, the more valuable your advice is …” “business often succeed or fail based on timing. Get there too early, and customers aren’t ready. Arrive too late, you’ll be stuck behind a long line of competitors.”
Do you happen to listen to any podcasts you’d like to share?
Rainbow Hui: I really enjoy the Kevin O’Leary show on youtube – always inspiring, totally recommend it.
Wrapping up – how can people reach you? Anything else you’d like to share?
Welcome to drop me an email : rb.hui (at) jia-fo.com, or connect with us on www.jia-fo.com and WeChat Public: JIA Family Office
