All articles by Charles Davis
Charles Davis
Evercore targets $5 billion AuM by 2015
In just over a year, Evercore Wealth Management has parlayed its deep bench of former U.S Trust veterans and a timely acquisition into one of the industrys fastest growing firms, with $1.5 billion under management Charles Davis spoke to CEO Jeff Maurer about the businesss five-year plan
Overlay management gains ground
A variety of vendors are now offering overlay management software via unified managed accounts, allowing wealth managers to execute preset investment strategies with automated decisions about when to buy, sell or hold the investments within it Wealth management platforms built around overlay management are helping to improve the performance of clients investments in volatile markets and by doing so, are attracting renewed attention.
Family offices ‘to hire in-house analysts’
Family offices are poised for a significant period of evolution as they start to address risk management issues thrown up by the financial crisis Charles Davis reports on this and an operating company effect which has an important bearing on factors like assets under management and staff levels. The family office business enters 2010 amid unprecedented turmoil, according to the latest US TrustCampden Research North American Family Office Survey.
Family offices: how low can they go?
Choate Investment Advisors, a US family office business, is looking to extend its services far below the usual $100 million client asset threshold implemented at many organizations of its kind
UBS refocuses in US, sells up in Brazil
Having dispensed with a bevy of lower-tiered branch locations, UBS is set on expanding its high-end US wealth management business as it charts a comeback from a difficult year.UBS sees great opportunity in its New York-based US Private Wealth management business, according to John Straus, the head of the division, adding that the bank senses the worst may be behind the venerable Swiss bank, which has spent the past few months coping with the furor from the auction-rate securities controversy as well as general investor anxiety over the market.Clearly, what happened in the markets has been unprecedented and in many cases people had a significant reduction in net worth as a result of the markets, and universally investors were unhappy, said Straus, who refused to comment on questions about the banks ongoing dispute with US authorities
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Signs ETF market is saturated as leading players head for the exits
After exploding popularity in recent years, there are signs the supply of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) has finally outrun demand, as some of the markets leading players exit the market and fund closures accelerate Barclays announced it has agreed to sell its US-based asset management business iShares to European private equity firm CVC Capital Partners Group for $4 billion, marking a significant departure for the worlds largest ETF player. A month earlier, Northern Trust, the Chicago-based custody business, shuttered 17 of its exchange-traded funds, which had $33.3 billion of assets under management at year-end.
ING repositions in the US
Dutch bancassurer ING is reorganising its businesses in the US By dividing its wealth unit along separate service lines, it is attempting to become smaller, nimbler and more cost effective in order to respond more quickly to changes in its markets
Retaining staff is tough at the top
US government proposals to cap bank employee pay at $500,000 per year could make it even trickier for the largest US wealth managers to hold on to their increasingly flighty brokers The travails of wirehouse brokerages have been well chronicled of late, and the migration of breakaway brokers leads to the inevitable question of how Wall Street firms can retain top talent in troubled times.
Crash of 2008 speeds change in US
Around 1,500 financial advisers leave top wealth management firms per year in the US to set up their own businesses, a trend which, though accelerated by the recent downturn, has been gathering pace for some time Charles Davis examines the implications for business models in North America Long after the markets have stabilised in the wake of whatever economists end up labelling the 2008 crash, the most noticeable and long-lasting effects will be felt in the structure of the wealth management advisory market.
Cultivating the kids
Private bankers are taking a multi-generational approach to wealth management of exceptionally affluent families, reports Charles Davis, targeting everyone from grandparents to children for advice to avoid complications when a new generation takes control of the family business or trust. The inevitable sands of time mean that wealth generated by one generation must be passed on to the next, a fact of life that wealth managers know all too well.It can be frustrating to manage the accumulated wealth of a family for decades, only to face a retention nightmare when the matriarch and patriarch of the wealthy family passes on and a new generation arises to take the reins of the family business or trust. Experts on wealthy family dynamics say that private bankers are getting out in front of the issue these days, taking a multi-generational approach to wealth management and growing ever more clever in targeting the entire family, from grandparents to children. I have seen a lot of emphasis on the multi-generational focus, and its becoming a bigger trend, even for people with far fewer assets than the family office set, says Hannah Shaw Grove, principal of HS Grove Private Wealth Consultancy, and author of Private Wealth: Advising the Exceptionally Affluent. Part of it is that there is more money than there has ever been and there is enough history now among a lot of people with means that they can look and see behaviours they really want to avoid with their children. Grove says that private bankers are employing a wide variety of tactics, from formal family meetings to workshops aimed at the children of clients, all designed to bring the younger generation to the table and include them in financial discussions before the inevitable passing of the torch occurs.