Asia has a record number of billionaires on the new Forbes Billionaires List out yesterday, a sign of great prosperity. Yet many pillars of the Asian business landscape are now in their twilight years. Among them, Asia’s richest man, Li Ka-shing, is 86.

What are the risks involved when great wealth and power pass from one generation to the next?  To learn more, I exchanged this week with Ann Cooley, a Hong Kong-based family mediator who has worked with elite families. How can interested outsiders spot signs of trouble? How can elite families try to avoid damaging fallout from excessive chauvinism and greed? Excerpts follow.

Q. What are some of the red flags that tip high risks of serious disputes in family companies in Hong Kong or in Asia?

A. It is very difficult to find early signals of disputes in family -related companies. The family tradition of Sunday dim sum, birthdays and Chinese holidays are honored by almost all the family members even when there are serious disputes. They are especially good at not showing their emotions or discussing family matters with people outside of the family. They like to keep their business and family affairs private.

(Yet) one of the most obvious hints is when the non-family board members or financial controller resigns, or takes early retirement. Families are not comfortable bringing in strangers or foreigners to help them decide on major decisions for the future of their family business. They would prefer to keep the board with familiar faces.

Q. About two-fifths of the members of the Forbes Hong Kong Rich List this year were over 70 years old. Four of the top five are over 80. What are the risks does that point to?

A. When a founder of the business passes away, the traditional Chinese values and charismatic leadership are often replaced by aggressive and opportunistic behavior by other family members.  Here are some examples:

– Yung Kee: As noted in the press, the patriarch and founder (of this prominent food business) expressed his wish that his family would continue to jointly manage the family business and work together to promote and develop the Yung Kee business. The family began fighting when the patriarch died. Six years after his death in 2004, the eldest son sued the family company, alleging that his younger brother had forced him out of the management and sent vindictive letters to their mother. The disputes also arose over whether to use the roast goose recipes from their father or expand the business with technology and systems.

A wave of 10 newcomers helped to boost Hong Kong’s membership on the newly released 2015 Forbes Billionaires List to 55 individuals from 45 a year ago.

Topping the list among Hong Kong listees this year is the former British colony’s perennial No. 1, Li Ka-shing. His fortune increased to $33.3 billion this year from $31 billion a year ago after investors embraced a corporate restructuring plan.

The overall increase in the wealth of Hong Kong’s billionaires to $248.8 billion from $213.7 billion a year ago camouflages some big declines in well-known Macau-related casino fortunes that were hurt by a Chinese government crackdown on corruption and luxury spending.  The fortune of Pansy Ho, chairman of MGM China, fell to $5 billion from $6.4 billion last year. Likewise, her brother Lawrence, an investor in gaming company Melco Crown, lost $1 billion of his wealth, to $2 billion.

The highest-ranking newcomer this year is Pan Sutong, whose real estate, finance and win fortune is worth an estimated $8.6 billion. Also notable among this year’s newcomers is electronics magnate Tang Hsiang-chien, the father of Henry Tang, a candidate for Hong Kong chief executive in 2012 who lost after controversies hurt his once front-running campaign.  The Tangs are investors in U.S.-listed TTM Technologies.    Neil Shen, the entrepreneur-turned- Sequoia China-executive, also debuted on the strength of lucrative investments in China e-commerce successes VIPShop, JD.com and Alibaba Group.

The fortune of Ronald McAulay has for this first time this year been split from his better-known brother-in-law Michael Kadoorie. McAulay’s fortune, also mainly derived from utility CLP and Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels, is worth an estimated $2.7 billion.

The 2015 Forbes Billionaires List classifies members by citizenship, in contrast to the Forbes Hong Kong Rich List, whose membership is based on residence.

Here’s a list of the Hong Kong members of the 2015 Forbes Billionaires List:

(List Rank, Name, New Worth, Source of Wealth)

Fong Yun Wah, chairman of Hong Kong's Hip Shing Hong, and his son David Fong, right, attended the opening of the family's Hotel Madera in Feb. 2012.

The importance of family history is readily apparent in the board room on the 27th floor of the Hip Shing Hong Group in the heart of the central business in Hong Kong. A framed photo of Fong Shu Chen, who arrived in Hong Kong in 1927 from adjacent Guangdong Province with his eldest son Yun Wah to set up a sesame-processing operation, overlooks from above.  By 1948, Shu Chen and his three sons created a new enterprise, Hip Shing Hong, to enter the real estate business.  From scratch, the clan turned Hip Shing Hong one of the largest unlisted property investors in Hong Kong.

More than six decades later, it’s Yun Wah’s influence that hangs most deeply over Hip Shing Hong.  His brothers (two survive) or their children are on the company’s board, but he owns the majority of its shares and is still chairman.  Plaques and awards crammed into the boardroom are symbols of the man’s philosophy — particularly his philanthropy — and success in business. Yun Wah ranked No. 21 on the Forbes Hong Kong Rich List this year with wealth of $2.5 billion.

Yet at 88 years old, Yun Wah has relaxed his grip on the day-to-day business in high-pressure Hong Kong and handed off much of the management. Unlike a lot of squabbling Hong Kong families, Hip Shing Hong has gone about its succession quietly.   Yun Wah’s eldest son, Albert, 65, moved to the U.S. almost three decades ago to manage family real estate investments there.

And so it is the younger son, David – now 55 — that has taken up the role of leader of the family business.  He only came into the family enterprise for good in 1993, after leaving Hong Kong to work for several years in California. “I would say the first five years were difficult,” he recalled of his return home.  “You sometimes feel lost. You’d say, ‘Gee, why am working for a family corporation? I’m not getting anywhere. If I work for a corporation elsewhere, I would have risen to a certain rank, I would realize a higher pay.  I would have better respect from my staff.’ A lot of frustrations.  A lot.”

How has it all worked out well?  Incremental additions of responsibility by the father to the son and careful attention to unspoken signals between the son and the father have played a part.  There is also Yun Wah’s willingness to change with the times for the good of the business and to take on the delicate topic of his own mortality.  As the years have passed, not only awards won by Yun Wah have crowded the family’s board room. Others such as “Distinguished Family Employer,” “Outstanding Corporate Citizenship,” and “Quality Management Award” have been brought in by David, marks of a succession plan that is working out.

Hong Kong, where family-controlled businesses rank as the most important, isn’t a place where succession plans always work out.  Li Ka-shing, the wealthiest man in the former British colony, appears to have worked out a good balance between his sons Victor and Richard.  But just down one spot lower on the Forbes Hong Kong Rich List at No. 2, the Kwok family has had its share of wrangling.

Much has changed in Hong Kong since the Fong’s made their early money in real estate.  Hong Kong has become one of the world’s most expensive real estate markets and a global financial center. The family has kept a lot of its old assets throughout, accumulating more than two million square feet of commercial, residential and other real estate in Hong Kong.

Yun Wah ran Hip Shing Hong with his brothers for decades, sending his two sons to North America for education.  After David finished a degree at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, he returned him to get a MBA from Hong Kong University.  For a time afterward, he worked outside of the family business, becoming a district supervisor at the 7-Eleven chain in Hong Kong instead. “They train you, from cleaning the floors to restocking the cold drinks. It was good training but it was tough.  Sometimes you work the night shift,” he recalled.  With that experience, he left in 1985 for California to work with his brother on the family’s real estate there.

By 1993, with Yun Wah in his 60s, it was time for one of the sons to step up and help back home. “I returned, and that was right after Deng Xiaoping visited the southern provinces and the economic zones. There was a big boom in Hong Kong. It was a call of duty to return to Hong Kong. Business was good, and there needed to be someone to take care of the family business,”  David said.

What the MBA-holding son found on his return home from California was too  many business practices that hadn’t changed over time.   “In a family corporation, it’s difficult to reform a company.   In the very beginning, you’re pretty much learning the ropes and doing the same thing as the company is doing. I complained about how outdated the computer equipment was, the furnishings of our office. A lot of things were outdated. The business was good but the packaging of the business was bad,” David said.  ”I realized that we need to keep up, improve our marketing side of our business. We need to hire better people. We are not a listed company. Our attractiveness is less than a fast-growing listed company naturally, for young graduates.   So have to offer better terms, better work environment and be a more caring employer.”

“But it was difficult,” he continued. “My father is a man who is very frugal. Business was really tough after the war. He did not – does not, even now—does not believe in glamour. He thinks you have to be very solid in what you are doing, you should be conservative, not flaunt your wealth, and things will be good. Up until now, I uphold those values. Except I say that, without a better office, without better management, you can’t attract talent.”
Over time, the father went along with some changes. The staff has increased to 150 today from 60 in 1993. David delivered the improvements and awards.

Specifically, I asked, how did he succeed with his father?  “I wrote business plans. Some he liked, some not,” David said.  “He set constraints, from his generation’s point of view. He would then observe how you perform, passing on guidance about what you should do and not do.  Somehow I sensed my constraints and level of authority I had.  Sometimes, though asking for something I know was beyond my limit, he would approve it. Then, I know that I can stretch my limit and authority a bit further. It’s not like we talk a lot seriously about (succession) strategy, what you should do, blah, blah, blah. No. It’s: ‘ Do what you want, but if you go astray, I will tell you.’”

In fact, Hip Shing Hong is a family business that works like any other company. “When writing a plan, I’d have to quote an example of what competitors are going, and say why I am doing this. The logic needs to be there to convince him that this is the right thing. It’s not ‘this is what I learned in the university and let’s do it.’  He wouldn’t buy that.  But then after a few years, after you gain his confidence.”

David’s emergence as managing director in 2009 has brought about a big increase in new projects. Hip Shing Hong has recently opened completely the Madera five-star boutique hotel in Kowloon, forged two joint ventures, and developed its own office and luxury apartment space.

As for how the clan will proceed when Yun Wah is no longer with the family, David said it is an awkward subject for many business leaders. “Asians dislike the mentioning of death, or talking about the passing away of the elderly.  It’s an issue that a lot of corporations and the elderly will avoid, especially if they are the founder. They think it is their baby. How can anyone else run the corporation better than I can?”

But his father has been willing to approach it head on. “He has a plan and we openly discussed what this plan (is).  We have a lot of brothers and sisters as well. How he is going to distribute his wealth, and how he sees the company going forward has brought up — there’s a rough framework. Of course that’s subject to change. That’s ok.  But at least there’s a framework. From the management side, there’s also a framework.”

David sees their approach as a potential reference for other family business. “I think that is critical for any corporation.  A lot of Asian companies are facing this issue. In the States, a lot of listed companies are professionally managed, and that is well understood.  In Asia, because of this culture, or the familial hierarchy, sometimes these things are not discussed. Then, all of a sudden, the next generation has to face a threat from being unprepared that can be damaging. This is becoming more and more important in China.”

At Hip Shing Hong, it’s not only David’s father that is aging. “Of course, I am too, vulnerable at my age, at 55, what if something happens to me?” David smiled. “I have to think of ways to make myself dispensable for the corporation.  That’s why I am planning a good managerial system so that if I am not around, the company should run properly. I always tell my managers, ‘I’m human. Who knows what’s ahead? ‘”

– Follow me on Twitter @rflannerychina