Image by Phuriphat Chanchonabot
Four steps to succeed as a wealth manager.
If you’re a certified wealth manager and you still need a wealthy clientele, lessons provided by investment firms show you must focus on your relationship skills. Trust is a vital component to build relationships.
For wealthy clients, this means you need to provide exclusivity, special client experiences with generosity and product quality.
For wealthy clients, this means you need to provide exclusivity, special client experiences with generosity and product quality.
These are the qualities exhibited by successful boutique wealth-management firms.
There are good reasons – actually very obvious reasons – why some wealth management firms are growing and others aren’t. A seemingly timeless 2014 study by the Luxury Institute confirmed what this business-coaching portal has long advocated.
Any time you handle someone’s money, you must take great care to build trust.
Study’s respondents
A Luxury Institute press release indicated investors with an average net worth of $15 million and annual average income of $800,000 shared their detailed opinions of 39 leading firms in the wealth management business.
The study showed boutique wealth management firms increasingly have brand approval among multi-millionaires.In fact, firms such as UBS and Merrill Lynch are suffering, as a result.
“Consumers are opting for boutique firms,” said Luxury Institute CEO Milton Pedraza. “Wealthy consumers really value relationships and the smaller boutique firms really deliver.”
“Consumers are opting for boutique firms,” says Luxury Institute CEO Milton Pedraza. “Wealthy consumers really value relationships and the smaller boutique firms really deliver.”
He said Merrill Lynch fell to last place out of 39 firms. UBS Private Wealth Management came in second to last. Bank of America, Goldman Sachs and Charles Schwab rounded out the bottom five.
Brand perceptions
Negative press coverage about legal problems adversely impacted the biggest of such firms, including Bank of America and Goldman Sachs. Other big brands, including, Citi Private Bank, Barclays Wealth, HSBC Private Bank and Wells Fargo also ranked in the bottom half of brands.
“Any time you have news that’s a negative in the media, these firms are going to get hit,” confirmed Mr. Pedraza. “The larger firms took a beating.”
While the specific rankings tend to vary from year to year, quartile placement remained relatively stable, according to Mr. Pedraza.
While dropping slightly from its number three spot in 2013, Bessemer Trust made the top five list several years in a row. Brown Brothers Harriman, which took the top spot in 2013 and in 2012, tumbled off the top-five list.
Northern Trust, Vanguard Personal Investors and J.P. Morgan Private Wealth Management also fell out of the top five.
Set up in 1882 as the Rockefeller family office, New York-based Rockefeller & Co. earned the highest score. Ranking closely behind Rockefeller & Co. were Atlanta-based Atlantic Trust Private Wealth Management, and Convergent Wealth Advisors. First Republic Private Wealth Management, and Bessemer Trust round out the top five.
“Successful wealth managers are relationship builders first, and, since few can beat the markets in the long run, money managers second,” added Mr. Pedraza.
“Successful wealth managers are relationship builders first, and, since few can beat the markets in the long run, money managers second,” added Mr. Pedraza.
Four important steps to serve wealthy clients
To succeed, you must shift your focus away from basic selling to high-touch relationship management, wealth preservation, and a custom-made offering.
Design and meet clients’ exact individual needs and preferences:
— Prioritize trust and responsiveness. Generic pitches will not lead to success. High-net-worth prospects value relationships. To earn long-term loyalty necessitates you being proactive during market shifts and your clients’ major-life events.
— Focus on preserving your clients’ wealth. Wealthy people want very much to protect what they already have. Instead of chasing aggressive returns, focus on customized portfolios, advanced tax planning and risk management.
— Research and offer sophisticated alternatives. Emphasize tax-efficient separately managed accounts, private markets and alternative investments. In other words, ignore standard bonds and stocks.
— Transparency about fees is vital. So your clients can easily explain the value of your services theiryyassociates and family members.
Good luck!
From the Coach’s Corner, to build trust, here are more specific tips for a variety of businesses:
Want More Business? Build Trust with Consumers…Here’s How — With consumers trying to cope with information overload – you will increase sales with long-term customer loyalty – if you build trust by using best practices.
Energize Your Customer-Loyalty Program with 6 Steps — The quickest way for established businesses to optimize revenue is to have a stellar customer-loyalty program — there are six steps you can take for repeat sales and referrals. If you’re not a great steward of your current book of business, it’s futile to look for new customers.
Consultants – 5 Strategies to Build Trust with Clients — The five strategies that enhance relationships between consultants and clients.
Thought Leadership — Why Companies Hire Management Consultants — Companies want knowledge. A good idea can be worth $1 million and more. That’s why companies hire thought leaders.
“Trust everybody, but cut the cards.”
-Finley Peter Dunne
__________
