Retail investment solutions are the key to tapping opportunities in China’s burgeoning wealth management business as managers grapple with the increasingly sophisticated and complex requirements of the country’s rich in growing their wealth.

“I think there’s going to be two trends there. The first trend is that wealth management in China is going to grow as people become better off and they look for wealth management solutions. They’re naturally going to start with their local domestic market because it’s more familiar,” says Patrick Donaldson, head of market development, wealth management, Asia Pacific and Japan for Thomson Reuters.

“But the trend that we’re seeing now is a real desire to move beyond the Chinese market and look overseas. Good investment management strategy would include a diversified portfolio, so getting access to overseas markets and then using the information that you need to do that well is a growing demand,” Donaldson says in an interview with The Asset.

“I think what we’re seeing in China are some of the non-traditional services companies appearing and because of the size of China just in terms of the number of people there, there is a huge opportunity to build platforms to attract investors,” Donaldson says. “The information that is made available to investors on those platforms needs to come from a trusted source because if it doesn’t the potential reputational damage to the organization is significant.”