What better to compare wealth management to than growing crops? Like a sharecropper who has been given land that he tills to bring forth harvests, the relationship manager receives parcels of wealth that he will endeavour to preserve and make bountiful.
Come rain, come shine
The hazards of the markets can be likened to those of the countryside. Storms, drought and pests alternate with periods of plenty. Some plants mature quickly and have to be replaced often. Olive trees, in contrast, can live a hundred years and are even fire-resistant. A relationship manager knows how to accommodate clients' individual needs and wishes, so he is able to find solutions that fit their particular circumstances. He will attend to the members of each generation from the spring to the autumn of their lives, intent on understanding their situation and expectations.
Our managers are also artisans who know their craft
Perpetuating wealth means more than anything else preserving it. But while gauging risks plays a vital part, wealth management means delivering returns as well. Some clients prefer their private banker to be an adviser, whom they consult before taking decisions themselves. Others give him full rein to invest on their behalf under a discretionary mandate. Wealth management rests above all on a bond of trust, making the manager-client relationship fundamental. Yet ours is also a highly technical profession governed by performance and volatility, where the ability to explain operations in simple terms is indispensable. Like a craftsman working with ultramodern composite materials, the relationship manager has to adhere to time-honoured traditions while adapting them to a constantly changing world. Nothing is static. Skills can be handed down, but they must keep evolving.
Teams with hands-on experience from across the generations
At Banque Privée Edmond de Rothschild our relationship managers are committed long term and often devote their careers to the Bank. Yet each generation brings renewal, with the veterans passing on their skills to the up-and-coming who in turn contribute their openness to fast-changing technologies. Thus clients belonging to different generations of the same family will find people on our staff to whom they can easily relate.
The men and women at our Bank's wealth management desks have extensive knowledge and wide-ranging sensibilities. Senior managers are allowed the latitude they need to build an entrepreneurial relationship with clients based on genuine confidence. We are not theorists gazing down from an ivory tower. We do not have blind faith in statistical models that betray their shortcomings when the markets tank. Our teams have impeccable, state-of-the-art training. But they can also claim longstanding, grass-roots experience in an industry where this is and will remain of overarching importance.