Findings from A Meeting of Minds Wealth Management & Private Banking - November 2019

The twenty sixth Meeting of Minds Wealth Management & Private Banking took place on 20 November 2019 at The Berkeley Hotel in London. This document seeks to capture the key issues raised in the programme of 16 roundtables which took place on the day.

A Meeting of Minds Wealth Management & Private Banking is a strategic forum organised on a biannual basis by Owen James. This was the 26th in the series. It brings together some 70 C-suite private bankers and wealth managers (CEOs and CIOs) to work through the key challenges facing their individual businesses and the industry as a whole.

Participants enjoy access to strategic insight and networking at the highest level. In addition, three external speakers are invited to provide keynotes which spark debate and encourage fresh and original thinking.

At the core of these Meetings is the series of roundtables addressing the pre-researched and pre- agreed agenda. These provide an opportunity for open discussion led by objective and professional facilitators.

THE SPONSORS

We would like to thank all our sponsors whose support enables the Meeting to take place. The following groups sponsored and participated in this Meeting and their motivation for taking part is threefold:

• To be, and to be seen as being supportive of the industry;
• To understand the stresses and strains being placed on the industry and, where possible, respond to them; and
• To talk openly with these business leaders with a view to ensuring that their own businesses are strategically aligned. 

THE FACILITATORS:

The Roundtable Sessions were moderated by: 

• Caroline Burkart, Associate Partner, Scorpio
• Dr Anthony Kirby, Associate Partner, Regulatory & Risk Management - Regulatory Intelligence
• Giles Patterson, Director, Scorpio Partnership
• Gilly Green, Managing Partner, Sionic
• Martyn Laverick, Managing Director, Soprano Consulting
• Paddy Lewis, Partner, Sionic
• Roopalee Dave, Director, Wealth and Asset Management
• Suzanne Spink, Independent Consultant
• Tasha Vashisht, Senior Manager, Scorpio

We are very grateful for the time and energy they have expended on making A Meeting of Minds Wealth Management & Private Banking a success and hope you will consider this report an interesting, thought-provoking and accessible read. As ever your feedback is much appreciated.

 

THE DELEGATES – profiling and sentiment data:     

In the run up to each Meeting, we seek profiling and sentiment data on the invited audience. The full report is available upon request, however the following are the key takeaways:

 

1. The make up of the audience is a blend of wealth managers, private bankers, discretionary fund managers, multi and single family offices – the majority represented by their Chief Executive Officers or Chief Investment Officers. 

2. They prioritise their key concerns. We have produced the following table which also introduces a comparison with other financial segments:  

3. On average, firms represented at this Meeting have £11.3 BN funds under management. 

4. We asked them how they think the value chain will be split in 2022. Again we have been able to compare this with other respondents:

 

 

5. The average age of their client base is 59.08. 

6. On average they influence 73.36 relationship managers. 

7. For the first time in the past two years, they are feeling more positive about the year ahead. 

8. The vast majority of products used are in-house (69%). 

9. They vast majority of the funds they use are active (69%). 

10. When asked what support they are looking for from a strategic partner, key is front end technology (58%) closely followed by technology back end (47%). Risk analytics is a high flier at 42% and then training comes in at 32%. We plan to dig a little deeper here. 

11. The majority are either already working with the IFA sector (37%) or considering doing so (16%) – primarily to provide their investment services. 

12. The majority of them believe that ESG is already the norm, will become the norm within the next two years, or within the next five years. They are certainly more enlightened than the IFA world.