VP Bank’s Client-centric Approach to Wealth Management

With private wealth in Asia expanding at a remarkable pace, we have identified the region as one of our most important growth markets. These target markets include Southeast Asia, such as Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand, as well as Greater China, including Taiwan and Hong Kong. VP Bank is built on four strategic business and core competencies - Retail & Commercial Banking, Intermediaries, Wealthy Individuals and Client Solutions including Fund Solutions. In Asia, VP Bank’s key competencies in the areas of Private Banking and Intermediaries cater to Asia’s emerging wealth market.

Surging Importance of Wealth Planning in Asia

Asia is now home to a considerable proportion of the world’s billionaires and is the fastest-growing continent of wealth globally. According to UBS and PwC’s latest Billionaires Insights Report 2020, Asia-Pacific accounted for the highest number of ultra-high net worth individuals, with 831 (38%) residing in the region, where billionaire wealth now totals $3.3 trillion. This is in comparison to 762 (35%) across the Americas and 596 (27%) in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA).

As wealth continues to proliferate in Asia, there is an increasing interest in wealth longevity within families, making legacy planning and inter-generational wealth transfer far more crucial than ever before. A key aspect of succession planning lies in the strategic and efficient wealth transfer from one generation to the next. This involves grooming the next generation, ensuring that they are well-equipped with extensive knowledge of wealth management.

Our ‘Winning Women in Asia-Pacific’ report - recently published in collaboration with Hywin Wealth and WealthBriefingAsia – further reveals that the rising millennial wealth signals a greater need for wealth managers to inherently understand their values and motivations.

The industry needs to identify and recognise core differences between generations to help them to develop an effective succession plan that provides added value to affluent families.

Power of planning for intergenerational wealth transfer

When family wealth transfers from one generation to the next, inheritors do not necessarily keep the same wealth advisors or want the same investments as their parents and grandparents. To retain continuity with families, wealth managers need to strengthen their relationships with the younger generations for client retention, and ensure services are a good match for their potentially very different expectations.

Wealth managers must encourage clients to discuss the plan with their adult children. Early planning and engagement well ahead of time is important. Issues covered in estate planning include succession scenarios, shared plan of action, understanding the family dynamics, tax and investment design like Trust and transfer of wealth. Although wealth managers can bring about the conversation, they may need to lean on other experts, including tax and estate planners and lawyers.

Money is not a topic that is easily talked about in families given the sums involved. Managing the wealth transfer is a major opportunity for wealth advisors to demonstrate their value to clients. When should these family discussions occur? Generally, once clients’ children reach adulthood, more in-depth discussions about the family’s wealth can begin. The next generation would have earned their way into adulthood before they get a clear picture of the family fortune and their potential inheritance. By then, the adult children are likely to have achieved certain milestones: completing a post-secondary degree, working full-time or starting a family.

Becoming the Trusted Wealth Advisor

VP Bank Ltd Singapore Branch’s wealth management services are aimed at solving sophisticated issues that go far beyond traditional banking.

Our Private Banking team consists of wealth management specialists that analyse our clients’ overall situation - this includes specific needs and personal circumstances, risk tolerance, expected returns and personal investment preferences.

By engaging VP Bank’s investment specialist, our clients also have direct access to our international network of investment consultant teams at any time. These specialists continuously monitor developments on the international financial markets and equip clients with news and information, allowing them to make well-informed investment decisions. In addition, VP Bank offers a broad suite of asset management mandates for clients with a preference to delegate investments decision to the bank. Our network also consists of well-established, global partners that provide guidance on governance models within the family or their business, which includes situations around international elements.

According to a recent study commissioned by IQ-EQ, more than USD15 trillion is expected to be passed down to the younger generation over the next decade - with Asia Pacific making up 27.5 percent of the global intergenerational wealth transfer. For ultra-high-net-worth individuals (UHNWIs) with more than USD 100 million net worth, 62 percent of this group are over the age of 75. This suggests that wealth transfer is likely to begin within the world’s wealthiest families in the next five years.

As wealth succession planning remains a complex topic for many, the more immediate a transfer of wealth, the higher the probability of issues arising due to the lack of infrastructure in place. If not done correctly, intergenerational wealth transfers can potentially be filled with multiple disputes among family members - leading to acrimonious litigation.

Our network of partners is well-equipped with expertise and knowledge to navigate this tricky subject and accompany our clients on this important journey. Our Private Banking team is headed by Karen Tan, who brings over 30 years of experience in the banking and financial sector. Her specialties include Foreign Exchange trading, sales, marketing in Treasury and Exchange Traded Products, and Derivatives.

“It is vital for wealth managers to truly recognise and understand the underlying motivations behind a family, to facilitate their development of an investment strategy which will help to sustain wealth across generations. Wealth managers can do this effectively only with a deep, empathetic, and holistic understanding of the family’s situation,” shares Karen Tan, Head of Private Banking, VP Bank Ltd Singapore Branch.

Staying Dedicated to our Clients

In demonstrating our commitment to the region, VP Bank Ltd had also signed a memorandum of understanding to enter a strategic collaboration with Chinese company Hywin Wealth Management Co., Ltd in July 2019, catering via their Hong Kong-based platform for the provisioning of personalised wealth management solutions to wealthy Chinese.

As a result, VP Bank Ltd Singapore Branch was recently named ‘Best Private Banking Regional Partnership’ at the WealthBriefingAsia Awards for Excellence 2020 in Greater China. The branch was also awarded ‘Best External Asset Manager Service Provider’ as a testament to our top-notch personalised services targeted at professional asset managers and wealthy private individuals.

As a boutique bank with a client-centric corporate philosophy, VP Bank is well-poised to be a trusted partner for wealthy families and high-net-worth individuals. We are dedicated to the protection and growth of our clients’ wealth, providing them with bespoke, forward-looking solutions and paving their way towards success.

Finally, our strategic positioning clearly describes what we stand for: "We develop bespoke financial solutions for intermediaries and private clients thanks to specialist expertise and excellent networks".  To do this, we build on our long-standing experience and strengths in the support of discerning clients.