Category: Financial Management

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Credit Suisse hires former AMP chief to lead wealth management

Credit Suisse has hired the former chief executive of Australian finance group AMP to run its revamped wealth management division, as the Swiss lender tries to win market share from its domestic rival UBS.

Francesco De Ferrari, who worked for Credit Suisse between 2002 and 2018, left AMP in June after a tough two years running the Australian wealth manager.

António Horta-Osório, chair of Credit Suisse, said De Ferrari’s experience of previously working at the Swiss bank’s wealth division in Asia and Europe would stand him in good stead.

“He will undoubtedly play a crucial role in delivering on the group’s new strategy towards a much stronger, more client-centric bank, with leading global businesses and regional franchises,” said Horta-Osório.

Expanding the wealth management is a top priority for the bank, and its ambitions were the main target of a strategy day to investors last month, as the investment bank is pared back.

In doing so, the lender intends to prove a tougher competitor to rival UBS, whose wealth business has left Credit Suisse trailing in the past couple of years.

Credit Suisse’s wealth business was at the centre of a corporate espionage scandal two years ago after its head, Iqbal Khan, defected to UBS and was trailed through the streets of Zurich by investigators hired by his former employer.

Philipp Wehle, who had been chief executive of Credit Suisse’s international wealth management business since 2019, will become chief finance officer of the wealth management business.

The appointments were finalised at a board meeting held in New York last week.

De Ferrari had a bruising stint at the top of AMP, which was criticised over its handling of a sexual harassment case, while shareholders were unhappy over the group’s dealmaking record.

The rehiring of De Ferrari came alongside the departure of one of the two women on Credit Suisse’s top executive team, Lydie Hudson, who oversaw sustainability, research and investment solutions, as well as being a champion of diversity at the lender.

The bank will bring in Joanne Hannaford from the start of next year as chief technology and operations officer. Hudson had previously been in charge of compliance, but was given a new role in an executive reshuffle last year.

Credit Suisse also confirmed the executive board for its new structure, which it announced last month.

In addition to wealth management, De Ferrari will lead the bank’s European, Middle East and African operations on an interim basis. Under the changes, investment bank chief Christian Meissner will have oversight for the Americas. Andre Helfenstein, who is head of the Swiss retail bank, will also oversee its overall Swiss operations.

Ulrich Körner will continue as head of asset management, while longtime Credit Suisse executive Helman Sitohang will be in charge of the Asia-Pacific region.

Thomas Gottstein, Credit Suisse chief executive, added: “With these appointments, as well as the appointment of Christian as CEO of the Americas region, the bank’s new divisional and regional structure is now complete and I am looking forward to working with all my executive board colleagues on executing our new strategy from January 1, 2022.”

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Private equity pursues investment advisers for returns and fresh capital

Private equity pursues investment advisers for returns and fresh capital

Private equity firms, among the world’s largest custodians of institutional money, have been buying up companies that advise individuals on their wealth, Art Of Landscaping.

The number of private equity deals for registered investment advisers has surged to a record 223 so far in 2021, according to data from investment bank Echelon Partners. The sum is up almost two-thirds from 2020 and more than three times the number of deals five years ago.

The latest came this month, when Apollo agreed to buy the US wealth distribution and asset management arm of Los Angeles-based Griffin Capital, which has more than $5bn in actively managed closed-end funds, including a credit and real estate fund and dozens of staff who distribute investment strategies.

Other private equity firms such as KKR, Hellman & Friedman and TA Associates have been acquiring investment adviser groups.

Wealth management typically has a high degree of recurring revenue, with customer “stickiness” that’s similar to a software company, said Daniel Seivert, chief executive of Echelon Partners.

And in September, the Securities and Exchange Commission’s asset management committee recommended allowing retail investors to invest in private fund strategies, Seivert said — potentially enabling wealth management clients to invest with the firms that back their advisers.

In the Griffin deal, Apollo will not only pick up an asset management company that it can scale, but Griffin also distributes funds to registered investment advisers and brokers, who are a potentially huge new source of private equity assets.

Apollo wants to raise at least $50bn in capital from individual investors within the next five years, the firm said in a presentation in October. This segment accounted for 5 per cent of the capital that Apollo raised on average between 2018 to 2020, and the firm hopes to grow that to at least 30 per cent, Stephanie Drescher, Apollo’s chief client and product development officer, said during the presentation.

“Scaling global wealth is our key bet,” she said. “It’s a market that is two times the size of the institutional market, yet they’re under-allocated by two-to-five times to alternatives.”

Private equity firms are targeting the wealth management industry in part because technology has made it easier for individual investors to access “alternatives,” or more specialised investments than ordinary stock and bond markets.

Column chart of Number of deals showing Private equity investments in registered investment advisers

“Private equity sponsors continue to recognise that solutions exist to help capture what has evolved from a more fractured and less transparent marketplace to one that can deliver more value across broader investor segments,” said Georges Archibald, head of the Americas for financial services provider Apex Group.

Other wealth management deals by private equity this year have included TA Associates’ investment in the advisory group Caprock and KKR buying half of $20bn Beacon Pointe Advisors from Abry Partners last month.

KKR wants to support growth plans for Beacon Pointe, a female-led registered investment adviser, and sees its Women’s Advisory Institute as important to serving women, Chris Harrington, a KKR partner, said. The investment in Beacon Pointe follows KKR’s exit this year from wealth management firm Focus Financial, which it took public in 2018.

Some US-based private equity firms are looking to less competitive markets overseas. This summer, Lightyear Capital funds bought UK-based Wren Sterling Financial Planning, and Flexpoint Ford acquired UK-based AFH Financial Group.

Aside from direct investments, most wealth deals were executed by portfolio companies owned by private equity, such as Leonard Green-backed serial acquirer Mariner Wealth and Oak Hill-backed Mercer Advisors. Mariner Wealth announced its ninth acquisition of the year last month, while Mercer Advisors scooped up 15 RIAs this year.

“Nearly all the most active strategic acquirers in today’s market are backed by prominent private equity firms and are often backed by more than one sponsor,” Seivert said.

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Zoe Announces Their Partnership With Forum Financial

NEW YORK, Dec. 10, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Zoe, a digital wealth platform that connects clients with fiduciary financial advisors, just announced a new partner joining their exclusive advisor Network. Zoe has a rigorous vetting process that ensures that clients are meticulously connected only with wealth managers among the top 5{21df340e03e388cc75c411746d1a214f72c176b221768b7ada42b4d751988996} of the country. RIAs that partner with Zoe are characterized by the high-quality, personalized, and unbiased advice they provide to their clients. 

To continue transforming the wealth management experience, Zoe recently partnered with Forum Financial Management, an RIA that uses a client-driven, consultative approach to create comprehensive wealth plans that are consistent with each client’s risk tolerance, stage of life, and financial objectives. Forum was named one of the 300 Top RIAs in the country by the 2020 Financial Times report. 

Forum’s commitment to their clients’ long-term goals is noteworthy. Progress is measured holistically, encompassing both investment account performance alongside evolution towards personal financial goals. Their dedicated team of experienced advisors has decades of experience in wealth management and their personal approach begins with understanding the hopes and dreams each client places in the center of their financial life. Registered in 2009, Forum has helped more than 4,000 clients and managed over $6 billion AUM for them. Clients will now be able to match with Forum Financial advisors through the Zoe Network. 

“We believe that holistic wealth management is the best approach to help clients achieve their long-term goals. We are excited to work with the Zoe Financial Network to help more individuals and their families reach their life goals by making better financial decisions,” said Jonathan Rogers, CFP®, Co-Managing Partner at Forum. 

“Since we founded Zoe, we’ve committed to connecting clients only with the best advisors in the country. Partnering with RIAs such as Forum Financial Management makes sense, fundamentally, we share the belief that hiring a financial advisor is based on trust, integrity, and confidence. We’re thrilled that clients will now be able to connect and start working with them through our network,” said Andres Garcia-Amaya, Founder & CEO of Zoe Financial about the recent partnership.

Learn more about Zoe at www.zoefin.com.

Learn more about Forum Financial at https://www.forumfin.com/.

About Zoe 

Zoe was founded with one mission: to empower consumers to make better financial decisions. The company’s algorithm removes the friction from choosing a financial advisor, offering a technology-driven marketplace that provides matches based on your unique financial objectives and connects you with Zoe Certified Financial Advisors across the United States. Zoe’s thoughtfully curated network of independent, fiduciary, financial advisors and financial planners includes only the top 5{21df340e03e388cc75c411746d1a214f72c176b221768b7ada42b4d751988996} in the country. 

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Wealth Enhancement Group Acquires Vivid Financial Management

Wealth Enhancement Group is acquiring Vivid Financial Management, a hybrid RIA based in central California with $674 million in client assets under management, the firm announced. The acquisition will push WEG’s AUM above $55 billion.

WEG CEO Jeff Dekko said the group was excited to work with the six-advisor practice “shoulder-to-shoulder” in the coming years, adding Vivid built a strong track record of planning-centered client service that brandished their reputation as a high-quality firm. In an interview with WealthManagement.com, Dekko also said the deal was indicative of WEG’s broader approach to acquisitions, and that the firm was not looking to buy firms everywhere solely for the sake of scale.

“National scale clearly matters, but we also believe local scale matters, because it creates a number of opportunities to create more team activity at a local level, and allows us to deliver business development and resources within that,” he said.

Vivid was founded in 2015, and includes three locations in Orcutt, Lompoc and Arroyo Grande, Calif. The firm was founded by Julie Darrah, Brad Boulton, Todd Woodland and Tim Miller, and its clientele includes executives, families and clients that range from physicians to dentists, educators and farmers. It offers an array of financial planning services, including tax, estate and insurance planning, as well as asset management services and retirement planning support.

With the addition of the three Vivid offices, the Minneapolis, Minn.-based WEG will now have seven outposts in California. According to Dekko, WEG began boosting its California presence in early June and July with acquisitions in the Los Angeles area (though the acquired firms had satellite offices in San Francisco). In considering how to broaden their Golden State reach, Dekko said they’d intended to mirror their approach in areas like the Northeast, where they set up shop in metro centers and branched out into the region like spokes on a wheel. Vivid became central to their California expansion, Dekko said.

“These folks came to us and they were just so good that we were ready to start that ‘spoke’ process,” he said.

WEG’s dealmaking has been prolific this year, with 16 in 2021 alone. In late September, the company announced its largest ever addition, acquiring QCI Asset Management, a 46-year-old independent RIA based in western New York, with $5.2 billion in total client assets (it was also WEG’s first acquisition in the region). The previous largest deal had been finalized earlier that same month, when WEG added the Charlotte, N.C.-based RIA Carroll Financial Associates, which had assets totaling about $4.7 billion. In August, the firm announced it was getting an investment from private equity firm Onex Corp., which became equal capital partners in WEG with TA Associates.

Dekko said WEG would likely announce more West Coast-based acquisitions soon, and also would continue its concentration on the Southeast. Helping direct the firm for the long-term was their belief that the number of transactions occurring among firms with an asset range of $500 million to $3 billion was likely to continue, but he expected at some point in the race for consolidation, aggregators would begin to consolidate themselves.

“I think that same thing is yet to come for us,” he said. “I think you’ll start to see it in 2022, and maybe 2023, you’ll start to see a little bit of that, maybe.”

Financial terms on the deal weren’t disclosed, but the deal will close on Dec. 31, with Darrah, Boulton and Miller all coming onboard as senior vice presidents and financial advisors at WEG.

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Scotia Wealth Management to sponsor Chile Open

SANTIAGO, Chile and TORONTO, Ontario–Scotiabank (TSX: BNS) today announced that the Bank has become the title sponsor of the Scotia Wealth Management Chile Open. This PGA TOUR Latinoamérica event takes place from December 6-12, 2021 in the Santiago suburb of Vitacura. The terms of this new sponsorship agreement span three years and include exclusive (financial industry) naming rights, onsite and broadcast brand exposure and client hosting and experiences.

In addition, Scotiabank has entered into a relationship with the Chilean Golf Federation and Joaquin Niemann, a PGA TOUR winner and member of the 2019 Presidents Cup International Team, Chile’s No. 1-ranked player and the 30th-ranked player in the world. With this sponsorship, Niemann’s bag will prominently feature the Scotia Wealth Management logo during tournament play and will participate in exclusive client experiences during the new Scotia Wealth Management Chile Open.

“Scotiabank is proud to partner with the PGA TOUR to deliver the Scotia Wealth Management Chile Open and to offer our clients in Chile and across the Pacific Alliance with access to this premier PGA TOUR event,” said Ignacio Ruiz-Tagle, Vice President of Scotia Wealth Management in Chile. “This new sponsorship adds to Scotiabank’s long history of supporting football clubs and events across the Pacific Alliance. We look forward to continuing support of the events that matter to our clients and providing them with unique client experiences.”

“We are very proud to have Scotia Wealth Management join us as the title sponsorship of the Scotia Wealth Management Chile Open presented by Volvo,” said Todd Rhinehart, PGA TOUR Latinoamérica Executive Director. “It is truly exciting to have Scotiabank join our growing family of partners as it shows the continued growth of the sport and our tour in the region. We look forward to the success and growth of this partnership as we kick off our second event of the season on one of the most remarkable courses in Latin America.”

“We are also delighted to welcome Chilean PGA player Joaquin Niemann as a Scotiabank Ambassador,” continued Ruiz-Tagle. “Joaquin is known for his quick pace of play and his gallery-pleasing birdies, and he has been delighting crowds on the PGA TOUR for years. We are proud that he is carrying the Scotia Wealth Management brand on his bag during tournament play, and we look forward to supporting him in his continued quest for the top of the leaderboard.”

“I am proud to carry the Scotia Wealth Management brand at the inaugural Scotia Wealth Management Chile Open and I look forward to a winning PGA TOUR season,” said Joaquin Niemann, a six-shot winner of the PGA TOUR’s Military Tribute at The Greenbrier in 2019. “I admire Scotiabank’s long-time connections to communities across the Pacific Alliance and am honoured to be a Scotiabank Ambassador in the Pacific Alliance.”

Ahead of the event, Scotia Wealth Management will host a Monday pro-am, giving 40 clients the opportunity to play on the championship course in advance of the tournament. Niemann will be in attendance and participate.

PGA TOUR Latinoamérica last conducted this tournament in 2019 when John Somers won the event at Club de Golf Mapocho. The tournament has been a part of the PGA TOUR Latinoamérica schedule five times (2013-15 and 2018-19).

Scotia Wealth Management is delivered by a team of local and global experts, who provide comprehensive wealth management brokerage and advice for each stage of clients’ lives—for their families, their businesses and their futures. Scotia Wealth Management combines the client’s vision, with the international wealth management expertise of the team to deliver a team-based, total wealth management approach.

 

About Scotiabank

Scotiabank is a leading bank in the Americas. Guided by its purpose “for every future, it helps its customers, their families and their communities achieve success through a broad range of advice, products and services, including personal and commercial banking, wealth management and private banking, corporate and investment banking, and capital markets. With a team of approximately 90,000 employees and assets of approximately $1.2 trillion (as of October 31, 2021), Scotiabank trades on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX: BNS) and New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: BNS). For more information, please visit http://www.scotiabank.com and follow on Twitter @ScotiabankViews.

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Billionaires’ Wealth Surged to Record During Pandemic

(Bloomberg) — The share of global wealth held by billionaires surged to a record during the Covid-19 crisis, according to a group founded by French economist Thomas Piketty. 

About 2,750 billionaires control 3.5{21df340e03e388cc75c411746d1a214f72c176b221768b7ada42b4d751988996} of the world’s wealth, the Paris-based Global Inequality Lab said in a report Tuesday. That’s up from 1{21df340e03e388cc75c411746d1a214f72c176b221768b7ada42b4d751988996} in 1995, with the fastest gains coming since the pandemic hit, the group said. The poorest half of the planet’s population owns about 2{21df340e03e388cc75c411746d1a214f72c176b221768b7ada42b4d751988996} of its riches.

The study’s findings add to a debate about worsening inequality during a public health crisis that’s hurt developing economies — which are short of vaccines as well as financial resources to cushion the blow — even more than advanced ones. Within the rich world too, financial and real-estate markets have soared since the depths of the slump last year, widening domestic gaps.

Those pandemic trends come after decades of policy that was often geared toward people at the top, on the expectation that it would “trickle down” and everyone else would ultimately benefit too, according to Lucas Chancel, one of the report’s authors.

“There is really this polarization on top of a world that was already very unequal before the pandemic,” Chancel, co-director of the World Inequality Lab, said in an interview. He said billionaires accumulated 3.6 trillion euros ($4.1 trillion) of wealth during a crisis in which the World Bank estimates that some 100 million people have fallen into extreme poverty.

‘Missing Middle Class’

Across most parts of the world, the richest 10{21df340e03e388cc75c411746d1a214f72c176b221768b7ada42b4d751988996} of people control roughly 60{21df340e03e388cc75c411746d1a214f72c176b221768b7ada42b4d751988996} to 80{21df340e03e388cc75c411746d1a214f72c176b221768b7ada42b4d751988996} of wealth. But the report highlights some clear regional distinctions. 

Overall, poorer countries have been catching up with richer ones — but within those developing nations, inequality has soared. Same-country disparities now account for more than two-thirds of global inequality, up from roughly half in 2000, according to the Lab.

Latin America and the Middle East are the world’s most unequal regions, with more than 75{21df340e03e388cc75c411746d1a214f72c176b221768b7ada42b4d751988996} of wealth in the hands of the top 10{21df340e03e388cc75c411746d1a214f72c176b221768b7ada42b4d751988996}, the report says. Russia and sub-Saharan Africa aren’t far behind. 

Other emerging economies like India still suffer from a “missing middle class,” Chancel said. “Colonial inequalities have been replaced by market inequality.” 

Wealth gaps are reflected in bigger carbon footprints, too. In North America, for example, the top 10{21df340e03e388cc75c411746d1a214f72c176b221768b7ada42b4d751988996} emits an average 73 metric tons per capita each year, compared with less than 10 tons for the poorest half. 

Measured by both income and wealth, Europe is the most equitable region, according to the report. The 19{21df340e03e388cc75c411746d1a214f72c176b221768b7ada42b4d751988996} of total income earned by the poorest half of Europeans is higher than the equivalent share for that group anywhere else. Pandemic policies like income support for workers thrown out of their jobs likely helped prevent that gap from widening further. 

“The Covid crisis has exacerbated inequalities between the very wealthy and the rest of the population,” said Chancel. “Yet in rich countries, government intervention prevented a massive rise in poverty.”

The World Inequality Report 2022 is based on work by more than 100 researchers around the globe, led by economists at the Paris School of Economics and the University of California at Berkeley. The first version of the study came out in 2018.

–With assistance from Giovanni Salzano.