How to Set Up a Successful Family Office

In the chaos that followed the Communist takeover of China in 1949, 24-year-old Frank Tsao stood before a contemptuous British ship broker and asked to buy a coal-fueled clunker. The eldest son of a once-wealthy Shanghainese family, his clan had lost everything except the gold they could stitch into their clothes. Now he was expected to lead the non-existent business.

From that first ship used to trade smuggled goods (the Ebonol was later sunk by a sea mine while running a blockade),1 Tsao became one of Asia’s best-known shipping tycoons by the 1970s. Toward the end of his life, he struggled with the perennial questions of the super-rich: How would he leave his wealth behind? And how could he prevent his heirs from destroying themselves over it?