As investor updates for the final month of 2018 trickle in, there’s one overriding message: December capped a year most hedge-fund managers in Asia -- and their clients -- would rather forget.

Managing money for the wealthy -- once touted as a panacea for banks burned by investment banking’s cutthroat rivalry and lenders’ smothering capital requirements -- is proving to be anything but.

The legacy of passive investment has been misconstrued