LG 181

Finance
Cross-border expertise:
top skill in wealth management
In the 21st century world, goods can be bought 24/7 on-line and execution speeds for
trading are measured in nanoseconds. Information-sharing and international money
transfers happen instantly. It is therefore no surprise that the globe's leading entrepreneurs
are more mobile than ever.
“
Cross-border expertise
is the key skill that a
wealth manager needs to
add value and to gain a
client's trust
”
Whether moving to another country for economic
opportunity, to access international
education, or to retire in a warmer climate, a
growing number of HNWIs have lived in
more than one country. As a result, they
have geographically diversified portfolios
and want the flexibility to move assets and
wealth easily between countries. Highly
mobile entrepreneurs have real estate in
multiple cities and rarely have a single bank
account. In this context, there is a growing
demand for financial professionals that know
how to set up processes between lending,
investments, global markets, and insurance.
As their families grow, HNWIs think about
generational planning and managing transitions.
The more activity an individual has in
different countries, the more complex the
planning becomes. While there are fewer
barriers than ever before, the financial crisis
has had a strong impact on regulation, audit,
compliance and risk management. This has
led to an increasing demand for access to
high-quality cross border expertise.
Ensuring compliance with both local and
international laws has become part of the
most fundamental and day-to-day activities.
Cross-border expertise has become the cornerstone
to a trusting relationship between
the client and the wealth manager.
«Cross-border expertise is the key skill that a
wealth manager needs to add value and to
gain a client's trust», points out Olivier de
Jamblinne de Meux, CEO Luxembourg at
KBL European Private Bankers.
Limited choice
The choice of destinations to find the right
cross-border expertise to manage the financial
activities of internationally mobile
HNWIs remains relatively narrow. Only a
few international financial centres offer a
wide variety of financial and legal services
that cover several jurisdictions. Luxembourg
is one of them and is therefore a unique
player in the eurozone.
As early as the sixties, Luxembourg had the
vision and openness to merge local expertise
with international talent and to develop a
financial centre that offers a diverse range of
multi-currency services and products to the
international business community. Today,
cross-border expertise is the skill that the private
banks, the asset management industry,
the regulator, the stock exchange, the insurers,
the auditors and law firms, share,
strengthen, and nurture on a permanent
basis.
22
LG - Novembre 2015