Helping clients understand the long-term impact Covid-19 will have on their plans will shape the future of the wealth management industry, the chief executive of Close Brothers Asset Management has said.
Speaking at today's (March 10) Pimfa Virtual Fest V2 Martin Andrew said it was vital that the industry helped clients navigate through the financial implications that Covid-19 will have on their financial goals.
Asked what his top priorities were for the future he said: “Clearly there is going to be a very large tax bill to be paid to cover the coronavirus release so we’re helping our clients to navigate that and to understand the impact that Covid is likely to have on their lifetime plans.”
He said other top priorities for the future will include intergenerational wealth planning, which includes helping clients save for retirement, planning for inheritance and using protection strategies to mitigate life risks.
Commenting on the rise of the Bank of Mum and Dad, Andrew said: “Helping the next generation get a foothold on the property ladder has become increasingly difficult and we see a lot of our clients helping the next generation get onto the property ladder.
“Our industry exists to help clients with these sorts of issues and I am looking forward to a time when we can stop talking about Covid so much and start focussing on those issues.”
Peter Moores, chief executive officer at Raymond James, joined the online discussions to relay his surprise that his clients’ top priorities had remained unchanged for the last two years despite the disruption caused by Covid-19.
He said: “I think there is going to be a lot of change but I think there will also be a lot that will remain unchanged.
"In March last year just when the crisis was kicking off we did a client opinion survey which we do every two years and we wondered whether we should go ahead with it given everything that was going on as we were just going into lockdown.
"We decided to go ahead with it and were surprised that when you compare the results from 2018 and 2020 the top five criteria were exactly the same.
"So Covid, has made no difference to what was truly important to our wealth management clients. Honesty and trust was the number one issue that was important."
He added: “What is interesting is that there is change coming but there’s also a lot of things that will remain the same and the question is how do we identify those that are new and important for the future.”
Sarah Soar, chief executive at Hawksmoor Investment Management, said the pandemic had helped the industry work more efficiently, which should have a positive impact in the future.
She said: “What Covid has done for us is that it’s made the industry act a lot smarter.
"What would have taken two or three years to implement, took two or three weeks, which is quite extraordinary.
