Investment Solutions Forum SG Post Event Report

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Wilfred McBride
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Investment Solutions Forum 2018 - SG Post Event Report 7 June I Pan Pacific Hotel I Singapore Link to Event Homepage Link to Content Summary page Link to Photos Link to Video

1 Investment Solutions Forum SG Post Event Report 7 June I Pan Pacific Hotel I Singapore Link to Event Homepage Link to Content Summary page Link to Photos Link to Video Highlights Link to Video Highlights Summary PDF Link to Event Summary & Poll Results Link to Panel Discussions Link to Presentations & Wealth TALKS Link to Videos Link to Post-Event Report

2 2 INVESTMENT SOLUTIONS FORUM SG Summary A world of opportunity in an ever-changing world The Hubbis Investment Solutions Forum, 2018 took place in Singapore, where more than 250 senior wealth management practitioners benefitted from the unique expertise of more than 30 local and international speakers, who gave their views on everything from investment strategies and ideas to the digitisation of platforms and investor interface. A total of five panel discussions, four presentations and four workshops were provided for attendees. With 2017 being hailed as the best investment year for a long time, it may be that we are headed for more volatile times ahead. Experts gave their views on the best way to position client portfolios and manage their expectations in preparation for the various potentialities that lie ahead. The forum began with a panel of experts assembling to discuss re-engineering the platform to ensure it is fit for purpose in the new world of wealth management. Wealth management has a different dynamic today compared with 10 years ago. Core objectives remain the same, while technological advancements threaten to leave the less savvy wealth service providers in the dust. The industry needs to be focussing on improving the presentation of all their asset classes on one easy digital investment platform and diversifying their clients' portfolios to better weather the volatile markets ahead. The second panel discussion of the day centred around the benefits of discretionary portfolio management (DPM), which many see as a holy grail that will provide recurring, stable fees, as opposed to one-off payments for selling products such as shares, bonds, funds and structured products. Active management strategies might pay greater dividends than in recent years when a rising tide of optimism and liquidity floated all markets. Panellists weighed up the value of DPM, or providing managed accounts, as wealth management firms in Asia try to emulate the transition towards advisory fees that is ongoing in Europe. Although it is not in the nature of the Asian high net worth individual (HNWI) to hand over important decision-making to others, we might have entered a new era of volatility and more range-bound markets, in which environment investors might reconsider their appetite for passing over control of some of their assets by outsourcing this to experts. Focussing more deeply on client needs and relationships is one benefit of outsourcing, as wealth management firms require a deeper level of understanding in order to fulfil specific mandates. The third panel discussion brought panellists together to gain a deeper understanding of how to engage clients, seek the best products and achieve the best outcomes. There are many facets to the efforts of wealth managers to improve the performance, and satisfaction, of their HNWI clients. Panellists warned that we could be facing a major upheaval in the mainstream asset markets in the foreseeable future as quantitative easing ends, as rates rise and also potentially as trade wars or actual wars emerge. The investment 'herd' mentality should be replaced by greater selectivity. Looking forward, new asset classes, new managers diversification are going to increase in importance. Technology is going to radically change everything, and some panellists feared it could also be the downfall of traditional banks and financial institutions. Keeping relevant and up to date, as well as moving away 2

3 INVESTMENT SOLUTIONS FORUM SG 3 from product-centric approaches towards the customer will help those in the wealth management industry survive and prosper. The penultimate roundtable discussion focussed on the outlook for the second half of 2018 for capital markets and structured products. Attendees pondered whether the market for structured products has changed, and what the optimal types of structured products might be in the foreseeable future. The experts recommended strategies and surveyed the future investment landscape. Panellists generally agreed that it had been a positive start to the year. To fare better in the volatile markets many predict, they suggested that asset diversification and a migration towards higher-quality risk were two areas to focus upon. Panellists also felt that a key driving force behind digital platform creation is regulation, aiding transparency and more rigorous selection procedures. Concluding the discussion, panellists agreed that empowering relationship managers (RMs) to have more power over product selection and pricing, as well as better access to research, will boost their performance exponentially. The final panel of the day revolved around investment ideas for Asia's wealth management clients. Investment experts all agreed that 2018 was set to remain volatile but that there were plentiful investment opportunities for their wealth clients to focus on. Experts agreed that diversification away from passive investment strategies such as exchange-traded funds (ETFs) has been increasingly popular in these changing conditions. Instead, the more uncertain market conditions have been encouraging a tendency towards active strategies. Future returns are potentially entering a difficult period due to the unwinding of the QE trade, rising rates and threatening geopolitical risk factors. Investors now need to consider practising a 'bottomup' strategy, some panellists suggested. This means scrutinising individual stocks rather than simply buying the big names or baskets. A series of presentations and workshops took place during the day, covering a wide variety of topics from the eyes of experts in each of their respective field. The topics covered included: the benefits of impact investing; the appeal of Asian small-cap stocks; the explosive growth of the global fixed income ETF market and the reasons why and how investors in Asia are increasingly using them in their portfolios; key trends in portfolio advisory; the evolution of structured products; and the growth and value of managed accounts. There is no doubt that Asia's wealth management industry is looking at itself in the mirror and assessing what it needs to hold onto and win new clients in the region. Investment returns as well as wealth preservation are both keys to success. Those wealth managers that are smartest and most nimble and that have the most effective strategies in place will win through as Asia's explosive economic growth continues apace. 3

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5 INVESTMENT SOLUTIONS FORUM SG 5 Attendee Profile Type of firm 41% 19% 14% 10% 7% 9% Private Bank Retail Bank IAMs / Family Offices Asset management IFAs Others Job role Product specialist C-Level Client Advisor/RM Others 5% 34% 29% 32% 5

6 6 INVESTMENT SOLUTIONS FORUM SG Attendees from these firms Allfunds Bank ANZ Aon Hewitt Arion Asset Management Aris PrimePartners Asset Management Aviva AXA Axial Partners AZ Investment Management Bank Julius Baer Bank of Singapore BlackRock BMO Private Banking BNP Paribas Wealth Management Bordier & Cie China Access Wealth Management CIMB CIMB Private Banking Citi Commerzbank Core Advisors Cornerstone Planners Credit Suisse Private Banking Crossinvest CSOP Asset Management CTBC Bank Daiwa Capital Markets DBS Bank DBS Private Banking Deutsche Bank Deutsche Bank Wealth Management EFG Bank EFG Bank Singapore Enhanced Investment Products Etiqa Insurance Falcon Investment Advisors Financial Alliance Finantix Finantix Smartfolios Finexis Advisory FNZ Fund Channel Globe Capital Asia Goshen Global Management GYC Financial Advisory Haitong Securities Havenport Wealth Hawksford Heirloom Investment Management Helvetic Investments Henley & Partners Hong Leong Bank HSBC HSBC Private Bank Indosuez Wealth Management Ingenia Consultants INTL FCStone IPP Financial Advisers ITUS Asset Management IZCAP J O Hambro Capital Management JRT Partners Leonteq Securities LGT Bank Life Planning Associates Lombard Odier Matthews Asia Maybank Maybank Kim Eng Mindful Wealth MSCI MW Capital Management Nomura Nordea Bank OCBC Bank PC Financial Phillip Capital Management PIAS Pictet Pinnacle Capital Asia Prime Asia Asset Management Prudential Life Assurance PwC RBC Wealth Management RHB Asset Management RHB Bank SandAire Schroders Wealth Management SEI Investments Silverdale Funds Silversea Asset Management SingAlliance SMBC St. James s Place Wealth Management Standard Chartered Bank Standard Chartered Private Bank Swaen Capital Swiss-Asia Financial Services Taurus Wealth Advisors Thirdrock Capital Thomson Reuters Tockington UBP UBS Wealth Management UCAP Asset Management UOB Bank UOB Private Bank VinaCapital VP Bank ZACD Group 6

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8 8 INVESTMENT SOLUTIONS FORUM SG Speakers Alvin Lee MSCI Anthony J. Harper Axial Partners Basim El-Shoura Allfunds Bank Bryan Goh Bordier & Cie Chinmay Patil Leonteq Securities Christian Abuide Standard Chartered Bank Jean-Louis Nakamura Lombard Odier Chun Him Tam RBC Wealth Management David Gaud Pictet Ecaterina Bigos BlackRock Gary Tiernan Crossinvest Justin Kendrick Ingenia Consultants Jeremy Sutch Matthews Asia John Lau SEI Investments Julien Le Noble Finantix Smartfolios Justin Bramley Citi Nicolas Rigois Standard Chartered Bank Kong Hong Lee DBS Private Banking Lavanya Chari Deutsche Bank Wealth Management Leon Mirochnik Enhanced Investment Products Martin Goerojo Citi Rebecca Sin Commerzbank Olivier Robine Commerzbank Paul Stefansson UBS Wealth Management Rainer Michael Preiss Taurus Wealth Advisors 8

9 INVESTMENT SOLUTIONS FORUM SG 9 Ranjiv Raman Schroders Wealth Management Tuck Meng Yee JRT Partners Robin Chay DBS Bank Roger Meier Bank Julius Baer Rohit Jaisingh DBS Bank Tony Wong CSOP Asset Management Xavier Burkhardt Leonteq Securities 9

10 10 INVESTMENT SOLUTIONS FORUM SG Key voting poll results The Hubbis Investment Solutions Forum 2018 event in Singapore held on 7th June 2018 provided fascinating and thought-provoking discussions and talks for the assembled delegates. As usual we also polled the attendees and mined out the following nuggets. 57% think the gap between how institutions and private banks manage their investment exposure and risk management is getting wider. 60% said clients do not have clear, long term investment objectives 87% said private banks do not provide the best pricing, or act in a transparent way and are consistent 88% expect their AUM to go up in the next 2 years 51% said they saw much interest from their clients to increase their DPM 69% said they were encouraged and incentivised to sell DPM to their clients 62% said their clients were not showing more interest in ESG 57% said their clients get confused between robo advisory and DPM and managed investments 56% said that the percentage of your clients assets in managed investments had increased dramatically in the last two years? 94% believe the Investment offering to their clients should be simplified 59% said they were under more pressure from Senior Management to SELL products today than ten years ago 46% said their clients were unwinding leverage today 68% said they were not having more conversations today with clients about principal protected structures 10

11 INVESTMENT SOLUTIONS FORUM SG 11 Investment Solutions Forum 2019 Thursday 13th June 11

Full Agenda - Investment Solutions Forum 2018

Full Agenda - Investment Solutions Forum 2018 8.40am 9.00am Registration Welcome Address 9.05am Reengineering the platform What does it mean today to add value to a client? What do you need from your investment