They tend to look for 'trusted advisers', and feel more loyalty to their adviser than the company they represent. If an adviser switches companies, the clients move most of their money to the new firm.

'Especially in the Asia-Pacific and Hong Kong, people still find it difficult to discuss their financial matters with banks,' said Aurore Saglio-Thebault, CEO of Capgemini Business Services (Asia). 'When they find a trusted adviser, they may share plenty of very private information. So if the adviser changes firms, the wealthy people follow their adviser.'

Hong Kong tycoons often end up with accounts at half a dozen private banks or asset managers as a result, but only really use the one run by the adviser they like.

So companies fight hard to keep their best money managers.

'To get them is quite challenging, and to retain them is even more so,' Mr Saglio-Thebault said. 'There are more and more rich people, so more and more advisers are headhunted.'

In the United States, the average adviser is quite mature at 52 years old. Industry experts forecast that within five years, 42 per cent of money managers will pass 60 years of age and go into, or start thinking about, retirement.

The wealth report says those trends are similar around the world. This means wealth-management firms are scurrying to recruit the next generation of advisers. It can be hard to find the right person, particularly in Asia. In a place like Hong Kong, there are still plenty of 'first-generation' wealthy people, who made their own fortunes. But what can a college graduate tell Li Ka-shing about making money?

The most successful wealth managers are people who have 'relationship capabilities', not just in terms of building a rapport with a client, but also in terms of building a network of high-level contacts to help the client. The adviser acts as a coach - even if the client wants to take charge of many of their own decisions - pointing them in the right direction. 'Youthful advisers are not really taken seriously,' Mr Saglio-Thebault said. 'The clients like senior guys.'

And women? One quirk about money management in Asia is that there are many more women in the field. Where the breakdown may be 70 per cent male, 30 per cent female in the US or Europe, the ratios are the other way around in Asia.

'I never had a rational explanation for it, but it is a fact - wealth managers in Asia are almost all women,' Mr Saglio-Thebault said. 'It could be a good entry for the women [into the job market]. And I have also had people tell me that a rich man in Asia cannot resist a lovely woman giving advice.'