China has over 530 billionaires (second place to the US with 989) worth a collective $2.2 trillion. 

Another staggering statistic is the population: over 1.4 billion people. 

With 17% of the world’s population, China really is a world unto its own, as a recent trip to Beijing highlighted.

Anyone who has traveled there understands it operates behind The Great Firewall, running its own systems and platforms. WhatsApp, Uber, Apple Pay and Google Maps are useless. You need WeChat, Didi, Alipay and Amaps to survive. .

Emerging technology is visible everywhere. Electric cars are the norm and you’re unlikely to see physical cash. Crime is almost non-existent in Beijing, while luxury brands are unmissable.

Mainland China is creating new wealth at an incredible rate, and wealthy families face similar challenges to those in any jurisdiction. And so they look to engage with peers to understand best practice, help preserve their legacy and pursue opportunities.

This is exactly why Candice Wu founded Family Office Circle, the Beijing-based network of family offices and UHNWIs.

She previously spent over a decade at a large multi-family office in London, then helped run a single-family office for a European industrial family.

 “On paper, I was managing manager selection, asset allocation, and direct deals. But in practice, I realized something uncomfortable: the industry is incredibly isolated.”

“Most family offices operate like secret islands. That works for privacy, but it’s terrible for innovation. You see the same mistakes repeated—overpaying for private equity access, chasing the same over-hyped 'club deals,' or missing structural shifts because no one wants to admit they don't have all the answers.”

Family Office Circle was created as a peer-driven platform for established family offices to share deal flow, operational benchmarks, and unfiltered insights on asset managers.

“We are strictly peer-only, with no product sales, and no media. We focus on the real investment trend and qualified content. Membership is by invitation only, and every member office has at least $200M in AUM or a proven track record of investments.”

The mission is simple: to turn institutional-grade best practices into practical, actionable insights that family offices can implement with lean teams.

“The ultimate goal is to help family offices shorten their learning curve and avoid avoidable mistakes. Because in this industry, a single bad GP commitment or a poorly structured direct deal can wipe out years of returns.”

Family Office Circle provides five core service pillars. These include curated deal sharing, benchmarking, and deep-dives on key topics that are led by members themselves. They also host webinars and small gatherings, and develop crisis response playbooks. 

Wu notes that while they do host one larger annual gathering for members, their focus is squarely on smaller meetups.

“We have no interest in being another ‘family office summit’ with 300 attendees and a dozen vendors. Our gatherings are small, private, and purposeful. That is a deliberate choice, and our members constantly tell us it is why they participate."

“Family Office Circle and its associated networks include over 200 family offices and ultra high net worth individuals.”

While based in Beijing, Wu notes their geographic spread is Asia-Pacific 65% (more than half of this in China), Europe 25%; and Middle East & Rest of World 10%.

On member profiles: “CIOs and Investment Directors make up about 60% of our community. Family Principals about 25%, and CEOs/COOs responsible for operations make up the final 15%.”

About 60% of members are structured as dedicated family offices. 

“The remaining 40% are in-house teams within active operating businesses or holding companies. In this model, a family’s operating company and its investment arm are under one roof, sharing back-office functions, treasury, and often key personnel.

Wu is upfront about the disadvantages, notably the obvious connectivity friction: China’s Great Firewall has lost them potential members. 

Another is what Wu calls the time zone squeeze.

“Beijing is 12–13 hours ahead of New York, 7–8 hours ahead of London. A working day in Beijing overlaps with Europe's afternoon and barely touches the US morning. Real-time collaboration across all three regions is nearly impossible.” 

They solved this with 'Hot Hour' - a specific 60-minute window (rotating across time zones) when all interested members must be available.

But there are also many clear advantages, most aligned to the strategic potential of China.

“Being based in Beijing means I have warm relationships with families that Western networks barely know exist. When a European family wants to co-invest in China's tech, supply chain, or energy transition – they come through us. We are the bridge.”

Something Wu didn’t anticipate was how many visitors she’d get based on curiosity. 

“Foreign well-known families actively want to visit me in Beijing. Not because Beijing is a convenient hub – it is not. But because they are genuinely curious. They have read the headlines about China's slowdown, capital controls, regulatory uncertainty. They want to see for themselves.”

“The single most common Western misunderstanding is that China is a less ‘advanced’ version of the West. Instead, China is its own sophisticated ecosystem—one that has been forced to mature globally from its inception, before fully solving its local infrastructure.” 

Wu believes this misunderstanding comes from demographics, saying “unlike Western fortunes often built on centuries of legacy, an estimated 95% of Chinese billionaires created their wealth from scratch in just the last two to three decades.”

It’s why China's ‘first-generation’ wealthy are still actively focused on growing its industrial or commercial empire simply to sustain its assets, rather than focused on preservation.

Through the network, Wu says she has realized that “trust is not built by showcasing strength. It is built by revealing vulnerability.” 

“After about six months of running the Circle, we had a workshop on "failed investments." I expected maybe one or two members to share something. Instead, ten members prepared anonymized post-mortems. One CIO shared a detailed breakdown of a $15M direct deal that went bust – including the exact clause they should have negotiated but didn't. Another family principal described how they had ignored their own succession plan and nearly caused a generational rift.”

She says after the session, several members privately messaged her to express thanks, noting they’d never shared these lessons.

“That is when I realized: what we were really providing was not just a network – it was a confessional, a safe harbor where the masks of perfection could come off.”

The group runs on closed WeChat groups since “WhatsApp is blocked behind The Great Firewall, and relying on VPNs for daily communication is simply not acceptable for busy principals and CIOs.”  

They have a knowledge hub run on Feishu (Lark),  the enterprise collaboration platform developed by ByteDance, that supports document collaboration. 

Feishu is also used for any online webinars or meetings, since Zoom and Google don’t work effectively in mainland China.

Wu also produces their own podcast where she interviews family office practitioners from across the global  ecosystem, from CIOs and principals to next-gen leaders.

“It's a genuine, peer-to-peer conversation. The word "闺蜜" (guīmì) means close confidante or bestie. It captures the trust-based, candid, and private nature of real family office conversations. That's exactly the tone we want.”

There are over 30 episodes published to date, mostly in Chinese - listen to a recent episode in English here.

With so much on the go, it’s not surprising when Wu says building the network was harder than expected.

“The unforeseen challenges were not technical or financial. They were human – managing egos, bridging cultures, and policing behavior without becoming a police state.”

“But each challenge made us better. Our members now trust us more because they saw us handle problems transparently and fairly.”

-