Dealing with less sophisticated people

So your client is the stereotypical Chinese billionaire who started by manufacturing tires and went the good ol' vertically integrated route by then getting into gold mining, liquor importation and of course large scale real estate development? I actually had an investor like that, and he was worth about $4B, and he was absolutely insane.

I'm confused, you're in Asset Management, but do you really mean private wealth management? Unless you're in a client service role, or really high up and pick up the phone for a whale, AM to me means that you're not going to have regular contact with your investors and if you do you're not telling them what to do, you're talking them out of leaving your fund or asking them to put more in, or maybe telling them what you're doing (and that's if they're really large investors). If you're in PWM, then that's a big part of your job: taking care of high maintenance clients. Most advisors I know will decide if dealing with that client is worth the time and effort and drop them if not. But it sounds like you personally can't make that decision or he's big enough that he's worth keeping around (probably both, no offense intended) since IB considers him important. And if IB considers him important, he's probably loaded and controls a company.

See how his direct, daily subordinates-the C-level people-interact with him. Quietly ask around the organization and figure out who his most trusted people are, find out how long they've been there, what their relationship is with him (family? been with him since day one? sleeping with him?) and determine how you can become like the people he trusts the most. You're obviously not going to make yourself family or be with him since day one (I suppose you could sleep with him if that's your bag) so don't assume the same posture because that would be a massive overreach but try to get yourself to that relationship, or as close as possible. For example, our Chinese investor (who ended up investing high 8/low 9 figures multiple times with us) was a half retarded absolute nutjob but we studied his CFO and VP of Legal who could have told him to wire all of his money to Jupiter and he wouldn't have blinked. Once we figured out how to get close to their realm, and it took a couple of years, shipping containers of Maotai, women of easy virtue (my single partner fell on that sword), eating fish and cow eyeballs and other parts of beasts most westerners find repugnant, and smoking god awful Chinese cigarettes, we had his trust and we didn't have to educate him or anything. If it's a long term relationship and you want to prove to your firm that you're valuable, figure this out. If you can lock down a trusted relationship with a wealthy and powerful Chinese (or Indian, Vietnamese, African, etc) individual you can create your own career path.