On further reflection, there seems to be a very simple (and nice) solution to my question. I'll sketch a proof of the following theorem.

Theorem: There is a constant $C$ such that $$\frac{1}{Cnk} \left( \frac{e^2 n}{k^2} \right)^k \leqslant p_k^*(n) \leqslant \frac{C}{n} \left( \frac{e^2 n}{k^2} \right)^k.$$

The upper bound follows from the recursion $$p_k^*(n) \leqslant \frac{1}{k} \sum_{a=1}^n p^*_{k-1} (n-a)$$ by a simple induction argument. To see the recursion, simply note that since the elements of the partition are distinct, we count each one exactly $k$ times.

For the lower bound, we use the probabilistic method. Motivated by the calculation above, let's choose a random sequence $A = (a_1,\ldots,a_k)$ by selecting each $a_j$ independently according to the distribution $$\mathbb{P}(a_j = a) \approx \frac{(k-1)(n-a)^{k-2}}{n^{k-1}}.$$ Discard the (few) sequences with repeated elements, and note that the expected value of $\sum a_j$ is $n$. We claim that the probability that $\sum a_j = n$ is roughly $1/(n \sqrt{k})$, and that each such sequence appears with probability at most $$\left( \frac{k-1}{en} \right)^k.$$ It follows that there are at least $$\frac{1}{Cn \sqrt{k}} \left( \frac{en}{k-1} \right)^k$$ such sequences. Dividing by $k!$ gives the desired bound on the number of sets.

On further reflection, there seems to be a very simple (and nice) solution to my question. I'll sketch a proof of the following theorem.

Theorem: There is a constant $C$ such that $$\frac{1}{Cnk} \left( \frac{e^2 n}{k^2} \right)^k \leqslant p_k^*(n) \leqslant \frac{C}{nk} \left( \frac{e^2 n}{k^2} \right)^k.$$

The upper bound follows from the recursion $$p_k^*(n) \leqslant \frac{1}{k} \sum_{a=1}^n p^*_{k-1} (n-a)$$ by a simple induction argument. To see the recursion, simply note that since the elements of the partition are distinct, we count each one exactly $k$ times.

For the lower bound, we use the probabilistic method. Motivated by the calculation above, let's choose a random sequence $A = (a_1,\ldots,a_k)$ by selecting each $a_j$ independently according to the distribution $$\mathbb{P}(a_j = a) \approx \frac{(k-1)(n-a)^{k-2}}{n^{k-1}}.$$ Discard the (few) sequences with repeated elements, and note that the expected value of $\sum a_j$ is $n$. We claim that the probability that $\sum a_j = n$ is roughly $1/(n \sqrt{k})$, and that each such sequence appears with probability at most $$\left( \frac{k-1}{en} \right)^k.$$ It follows that there are at least $$\frac{1}{Cn \sqrt{k}} \left( \frac{en}{k-1} \right)^k$$ such sequences. Dividing by $k!$ gives the desired bound on the number of sets.