I’ve attached a video of your process with your max file as well 3Ds Max to importing into UE4 4.12 preview 4 and 4.11.2.
On another note that leads me more to believe this is a Max issue and not related to UE4 is that I had this happen on an asset the other day that I had in 3Ds Max. I was getting the same error, and all this was done with 3Ds Max 2013 (my default version I work out of). To test see if I could get rid of the issue in Max since it was saying there was no hierarchy I created a simple box and attached the broken asset to the box. Then I simply deleted the box asset being left with my original broken asset. I was then able to export and import this into UE4 without any issue.