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How the super-rich invest
超級富豪如何投資
The family offices through which the world’s richest invest are a new force in global finance—and a target for populists
世界富豪投資方式“家族辦公室”，既是全球金融領域的新生力量，也是民粹主義者目標所在
Think of the upper echelons of the money-management business, and the image that springs to mind is of fusty private banks in Geneva or London’s Mayfair, with marble lobbies and fake country-house meeting-rooms designed to make their super-rich clients feel at home. But that picture is out of date. A more accurate one would feature hundreds of glassy private offices in California and Singapore that invest in Canadian bonds, European property and Chinese startups—and whose gilded patrons are sleepwalking into a political storm.
試想資金管理行業的頂層，浮現腦海的是日內瓦或倫敦梅菲爾區的私人銀行，大理石大廳、仿照鄉間別墅的會客室，力求讓其超級富豪客戶感到賓至如歸。但這樣的印象已過時。實際情況是，美國加州和新加坡，成千上百玻璃裝修的私人辦公室專注投資加拿大債券、歐洲房地產和中國初創企業（中國初創企業的黃金贊助人正夢游般卷進一場政治風暴）。
Global finance is being transformed as billionaires get richer and cut out the middlemen by creating their own “family offices”, personal investment firms that roam global markets looking for opportunities. Largely unnoticed, family offices have become a force in investing, with up to $4trn of assets—more than hedge funds and equivalent to 6% of the value of the world’s stockmarkets. As they grow even bigger in an era of populism, family offices are destined to face uncomfortable questions about how they concentrate power and feed inequality.
億萬富翁財富與日俱增，并創建“家族辦公室”（在全球市場尋求商機的私人投資公司）從而略過中間商，與此同時，全球金融正在轉型。之前被忽視的家族辦公室現已成為一股投資力量，擁有高達4萬億美元的資產——超過對沖基金，相當于全球股市價值的6%。在民粹主義時代，家族辦公室發展更上一層樓，而惱人的問題也注定會隨之而來：如何集權、加劇不平等。
The concept is hardly new; John D. Rockefeller set up his family office in 1882. But the number has exploded this century. Somewhere between 5,000 and 10,000 are based in America and Europe and in Asian hubs such as Singapore and Hong Kong. Though their main task is to manage financial assets, the biggest offices, some with hundreds of staff, undertake all sorts of other chores, from tax and legal work to acting as high-powered butlers who book jets and pamper pets.
這個概念并不新鮮；約翰·D.洛克菲勒在1882年就成立了家族辦公室。但家族辦公室數量在本世紀呈爆炸式增長。美國和歐洲，以及新加坡和香港等亞洲中心，大約有5000到10000個家族辦公室。雖然其主要任務是管理金融資產，但規模大一些的也（有些辦公室有數百名員工）承擔多種工作，從稅務到法律，再到訂飛機和照顧寵物的高級管家。
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