Delving Deeper

Antonia Blake and David Dunn introduce the Forum’s two new special interest groups.
Private Banking & Wealth Management
It is appropriate that The Financial Services Forum is launching Private Banking & Wealth Management as its latest Special Interest Group, as a recent report by PWC confirms the growth of the sector and indicates that wealth managers are probably as optimistic as they’ve been about the future. The report also points out that “differentiation will be crucial and still remains the holy grail for wealth managers”. Yet it offers the opinion that wealth management organisations have made little progress in differentiating themselves through the use of branding, despite it’s importance in gaining new clients.
Those of us in the industry realise that while professional referral and client recommendation will continue to be central to our business development, new clients (and existing ones for that matter) will be attracted to those wealth managers who can offer a differentiated brand and service proposition in the market. And as private clients reduce the number of wealth managers with whom they deal, brand will often act as the first point of reference. This is where membership of The Financial Services Forum becomes so important to Private Banks and Wealth Managers, in that it offers a forum within which members can hear from cross industry experts, discuss and debate among themselves, learn from successful case studies, and share their own views on marketing effectiveness.
I would encourage wealth managers and marketers from private banks to join this Special Interest Group as I remain positive that it will provide a valuable source of ideas in helping us to better promote and brand both ourselves and our industry.
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