EDHEC-Risk European Private Wealth Management Survey

Summary:

A survey drawing on responses from 159 European private wealth managers, the three main findings of which are: Private wealth managers see the relationships they forge with their clients as the principle source of the value they add but they fail to exploit this close relationship to customise the services they offer their clients (when portfolios are designed for clients, market factors are taken into account more frequently than are the individual characteristics of the clients); Private wealth managers fail, on the whole, to provide state-of-the art means of horizon-dependent asset allocation. In fact, when human capital, the time and state dependency of investment opportunities, and other causes of horizon effects are not recognised, one can conclude that horizon-based allocations are approximate rather than optimal; Private wealth managers see the great potential of taking into account client-specific spending objectives, but only a small minority actually attempts to realise this potential.