Best Banks for International Wealth Management
WEALTH – at home all over the world
His homeland is in Asia, his business empire stretches as far as Europe, he has a daughter studying in Cambridge and a son at Harvard, and his wife likes to shop in Munich, because there, the small children can play without bodyguards. Their asset manager, however, is based in Switzerland. Many high-net-worth individuals from all over the world, frequently businesspeople, are similarly set up with their families.
While Switzerland’s reputation in Europe and the USA may have suffered after the tough disputes with the US and European tax authorities, it is still untarnished in other parts of the world. The country is seen as having an international outlook and as being politically and economically stable, which is especially important for non-European clients in particular, and assets deposited there are considered to be safe from arbitrary government actions.
As well as a long-standing tradition in asset management, Switzerland is the only German-speaking country whose banks have the global branch network and expertise that internationally focused, highly mobile, high-net-worth clients require. Not only do they want first-rate financial services, they also expect to be accepted and understood in terms of their own individual cultural norms.
Although there are not so many internationally focused banks in the financial hubs of Geneva and Zurich, those that are there promise much in this regard. But can they really offer all of this? As well as a global network, do they have the intercultural skills that high-net-worth individuals expect? Can they satisfy the requirements of these clients? And to what extent are they able to provide these clients with expert and individualised advice in matters of wealth?
The answers to these questions were assessed by Private Banking Prüfinstanz (PBPI), a partnership between Verlag FUCHSBRIEFE and Dr. Richter | IQF that tests private banking products. Eighteen banks met the requirements for the test. PBPI compared the performances of these banks with each other and with test findings gathered over a period of more than ten years in the area of private banking and wealth management in German-speaking Europe. The report presented here, which focuses on the client’s perspective, is a compilation of the results.
