Three months ago, Ling Pong – a Goldman Sachs veteran of nearly 20 years – took the helm as head of North Asia for its Private Wealth Management (PWM) division. Facing an expanding mandate, she told Asian Private Banker how the US bank is capitalising on recent market momentum, while highlighting investment trends among family office clients.

With a strong trading and institutional setup, Goldman Sachs PWM banks mega-wealthy clients with an average account size of US$70 million, focusing efforts on a trillion-dollar mission – long-term wealth preservation and growth. In 2024, the bank managed US$120 billion in client assets in Asia, up 20% from a year ago, APB Insights showed.

“PWM is a significant growth opportunity, and the firm is focused on growing the business,” the Goldman Sachs partner and new head for North Asia told Asian Private Banker. “We are very focused on doing what we do best, and there’s a lot of momentum in our business.”

Pong’s institutional background at the firm and Hong Kong’s resurging IPO market make her ideally placed to leverage the ‘One Goldman Sachs’ proposition, which fosters ever closer ties between the investment bank and private wealth sides of the business.

“We have seen a lot of IPO activity in both the US as well as in Hong Kong. The aftermarket performance of Hong Kong IPOs has been solid. Our clients have been actively participating in both US and Hong Kong IPOs,” she said.

Leveraging ‘One Goldman Sachs’ is a big part of growing the PWM franchise, but she noted the firm is prudent in sourcing One Bank deals for clients and is focused on meeting client needs. “That’s the spirit of ‘One Goldman Sachs,’ and we bring the whole firm to the client,” according to Pong, who, in addition to her other roles, is the head of PWM capital markets, equity structuring, and managed strategies for APAC.

An area that the US giant is zeroing in on is structured lending for private wealth clients, where most US-led private banks have historically been less active compared to retail-linked private banks or their European counterparts.

US, China or both? 

The firm’s latest Family Office Investment Insights Report – a biannual survey that features 245 global family offices, including 27% from APAC – identified how family offices are ready to deploy capital and are increasing their allocations to public equities.

One clear takeaway is that APAC clients are remaining steadfast in the market despite ongoing concerns about global uncertainties such as trade wars, escalating international tensions, and more. “We are seeing high levels of activity this year across different markets. Most of the major markets in the world have performed really well,” Pong said.

According to the report, over 95% of APAC family office respondents have allocations in the US, 80% in China, with a rising 62% investing in Europe and 53% in Japan.

While there is some debate about diversifying away from the US, Pong highlighted that clients in the region typically start with the predominant share of their wealth in Asia assets and gradually increase their liquidity allocations to the US for diversification.

“Our recommendation for clients is to stay invested in US equities and systematically build exposure to markets that we think will do well in the long term. We are very comfortable with asset performance in the US markets in the long term,” Pong noted.

Regarding China, Pong said investor sentiment has shifted more positively towards the region, and its clients tend to have a home bias mindset. Following the DeepSeek moment earlier this year, showcasing China’s advancements in AI, the enthusiasm for the technology sector has sparked renewed interest in Chinese equity markets, she said. Major indexes such as the CSI 300 and Hang Seng have surged this year, despite the region’s slow overall economic growth.

“The [China] economy continues to grapple with some structural issues, but we feel more confident than before that policymakers are well aware of these issues and are addressing them.”

Thirty-eight per cent of family offices also expect to increase their allocation to public equities over the next 12 months, but Pong stressed “the markets are not out of the woods yet”.

“What we are here to do is to advise clients on long-term wealth preservation and growth, and having a good advisor through volatile times is more important than ever. The volatility will likely continue, and we are very focused on helping our clients stay invested for the long term.”

Alts appetite remains strong

Goldman Sachs PWM’s ultra high net worth (UHNW) clients continue to favour alternative investments, with family offices allocating a significant 42% of their total portfolios to various alternative asset classes, despite a slight decrease from 44% two years ago.

The report explained that due to the strong public markets performance, the decrease in the average allocation to private equity seems more modest than expected, with “the lack of distributions perhaps helping to put a floor under private equity portfolio weights.” Nevertheless, this trend has already begun to reverse course with an increase in IPO and M&A activity.

But Pong said the appetite for alternatives remains strong in Asia Pacific. “Our clients recognise that allocating to alts is a programmatic exercise, and they have to be systematic about their allocations so that they can diversify across vintages.”

Goldman Sachs PWM currently recommends allocating 25% to alternatives for UHNW clients. Pong said the current trend in Asia is around 20%, with a preference for traditional drawdown vehicles.

Another notable family office trend is the appetite for AI. She added that AI is a top-of-mind thematic trend for clients. She said while there are concerns about valuations, clients will continue to seek to increase their exposure as they focus on the long term.