The Swiss Army knife wealth manager
Modern families and the next generation are reshaping the world with complex international structures, advanced financial education, demanding customisation needs, complex investment strategies and greater expectations in terms of responsible investment. Many solutions are now available to help families structure themselves and cater to their challenges. Technology allows them to set up a structure similar to a family office and benefit from financial tools and data more easily than ever.
When choosing a provider, clients and their advisors must conduct thorough research and consider various factors:
- Level of control and sophistication: This is the first step when a family decides to internalise their investment management process. Does the platform need to offer a brokerage service or to route orders to their brokers of choice or is the family purely looking for a consolidation and reporting solution? The more the family want to be in charge, the more time they will need to invest in the definition of their needs.
- Geographic proximity: Family members may be located in different countries. Local offices may facilitate the training and support of any person involved in the process, whether it be on a daily basis or more sporadically.
- Specific needs and areas of interest: Confidentiality and data security may be of particular importance to some families, whereas others will want to place an emphasis on the seamless follow‑up and integration of sustainable finance metrics and reports.
- Data hosting: Some platforms host their data on public clouds. Others set up their own private clouds in data centres or host their servers on their own premises.
- Wealth composition: The platform must be able to integrate seamlessly with the banks that the family uses as custodians and must be equipped to handle specific asset classes, such as real estate, private equity or collectibles.
Going a step beyond
Does the family want to benefit from other asset services that would integrate into the platform? Centralising the services with one institution (banking services and wealth consolidation) may help reduce their intermediaries, decrease the overall costs and ultimately smooth the experience.
Choosing the right partner is crucial for modern families, as they naturally want to ensure that their wealth is protected and growing in a sustainable way. Banks bring security and financial expertise to the table, whereas fintech offers appealing technological breakthroughs. The perfect wealth‑management solution provider would combine the best of both worlds. A true Swiss Army knife.