Through trade wars, lockdowns and crisis
The go-to financial adviser for wealthy Asians, Garth Hu has guided clients through investment minefields and tension among Beijing and Canberra.
The go-to financial adviser for wealthy Asians, Garth Hu has guided his mainly Chinese clients through investment minefields including the global financial crisis, trade wars, travel lockdowns and the current frosty relations between Beijing and Canberra.
The Melbourne-based head of Morgan Stanley’s local Asian practice, Hu says while travel restrictions have been inconvenient his persistent clients remain keen on investing in Australia.
This is especially the case through the popular significant investment visa platform, which allows for permanent residency after four years for those willing to invest $5m or more in approved ventures.
The yoga-loving Hu himself has been a showcase of persistence, emerging as Barron’s top-rated adviser this year after being runner up for the past two years.
An engineering graduate from Huazhong University of Science and Technology with an abiding interest in commerce, Hu came to Australia in 2000 to manage a technology company (and did so for six years).
“This experience taught me that my time is limited and valuable, and motivated me to change to a career where I can better leverage my time and energy,” he says.
“I had made a number of friends and contacts in the financial industry and was attracted by the variety of work and business models which much better aligned effort with reward.”
In full: The List - Australia’s 100 Top Financial Advisers
After completing an MBA at Monash University in 2006, Hu landed a senior role at UBS Wealth Management — just as the GFC hit. After the firm abolished its whole advisory team, Morgan Stanley wasted no time swooping on Hu.
He describes himself more as an investment adviser rather than financial planner to his team’s 320 clients, who have an average wealth of $50m and must have a minimum $5m of assets to be on the books.
“We apply a holistic investment approach in which we tailor to the individual wealth management needs of our clients,” he says.
“Recently, we have been introducing more alternative assets such as direct property, hedge funds and private equity to our client base in order to decrease market correlation and increase portfolio diversification.”
During the coronavirus pandemic, Hu and his team have been regularly updating clients and sharing the firm’s global research. “There are a lot of video conferences, telephone calls and emails to help clients build up trust and make their investment decisions,” he tells The Deal.
Client preferences, meanwhile, are moving away from the old staple of direct property to investing in venture capital funds and early-stage direct financing of emerging businesses.
“The fintech and biotech sectors have also been areas of focus,” he says.
In commercial property, many clients prefer direct property funds rather than buying a single property asset, “while still gaining significant exposure to real estate”.
As investors grasp for direction, Hu echoes Morgan Stanley chief global economist Chetan Ahya’s confidence in a V-shaped recovery as consumer activity picks up.
“This comes on top of the already robust policy responses from global central banks and governments (including Australia),” he says. “We are alert to the risk of equity market volatility but the positive economic data is supportive of markets.”
As for property, Hu believes the residential sector is likely to be constrained because of the recession and the likely end to the JobKeeper scheme in September.
“We don’t think the property market will likely enjoy the same growth rates in the future as it has in recent years and expect some softness to continue,” he says.