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The Independent Wealth Offering in the UAE – Aligning Strategies and Solutions to Drive Efficiency and Evolve the Proposition

The Hubbis Independent Wealth Management Forum of March 6 in Dubai saw a panel of independent wealth experts assemble to discuss how the industry should align the right strategies, operational models and tools to ensure they can compete effectively and deliver the best outcomes for their clients, their team members and their owners. One of the experts on the panel was Dean Kemble, Chief Commercial Officer at GSB Capital. Established in 2021, GSB Capital recently attained CISI CharteredTM status from The Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment (CISI) in January of this year, becoming the first-ever international firm and the first in the Middle East to achieve that recognition. The accolade is a feather in the cap for GSB, which Ross and Alison Whatnall founded. In a recent interview with Hubbis, Dean explained that GSB has been providing an increasingly wide range of wealth management and broader financial services to clients seeking high-quality investment, financial planning, private banking, lending and corporate finance expertise. During this panel discussion, he offered his insights into what the independent wealth platform needs for operational and client-centric success.

Charting the Course: Talos's Role in Shaping the Future of Digital Assets

Talos is a B2B software provider specializing in digital asset trading solutions for institutions on the buy-side and sell-side of global markets. Hubbis recently had the opportunity to connect with Samar Sen, Head of APAC for the firm, who gave us insights into the primary challenges faced by institutions wanting to get involved in the world of Digital Assets today. He delved into the challenges faced, the opportunities on the horizon, his key priorities, and how Talos supports firms in their transition toward participating in the greatest financial revolution of the 21st century.

Fadi Barakat on REYL Intesa Sanpaolo Finance’s Boutique Independent Offering for the UAE’s Dynamic Wealth Market

REYL Intesa Sanpaolo has been one of the early leaders in the evolving landscape of the UAE’s financial sector. It believes that its position as a boutique independent wealth firm is ideal for achieving the best client outcomes and for the firm’s ongoing strategic growth. We spoke again recently with Fadi Barakat, Chief Investment Officer at REYL Finance (MEA) in Dubai, for some updated perspectives on the UAE operations and ambitions within REYL Intesa Sanpaolo, a family-controlled business that dates back originally to 1973 in Switzerland, that has been operating in the UAE since 2015. Under the current leadership of François Reyl since 2008, the founder’s son, the Bank has navigated the complexities of global finance to amass nearly USD39 billion in assets under management. With a strategic footprint across ten locations, including London, Europe, Dubai, Singapore, and the US, REYL Intesa Sanpaolo epitomises the boutique private bank model that thrives on personalised service and innovative financial solutions. Fadi describes REYL Intesa Sanpaolo’s operation in the DIFC as a small to medium-sized boutique private wealth management firm, functioning essentially like a multifamily office. He says the UAE is a big market for the bank and links in ideally to REYL Intesa Sanpaolo’s booking centres in Geneva and Singapore. He explains that the UAE operation is keenly building a significant presence, leveraging the overall market’s growth and its network of skills and relationships within the wider Group.

Indian Asset and Wealth Management: The Missing Jewel in the Portfolio?

I have just spent a week in India with Michael Stanhope of Hubbis. We had the good fortune to meet with 125 senior executives of some of Hubbis’ clients, all of whom are leading local State and commercial banks, international private banks, independent wealth managers, multi-family offices, asset managers, law firms and fiduciary services providers.

The Intersection of Art and Investment: Exploring the Opportunities and Challenges

Investing in art has long been an intriguing but complex endeavor, offering a unique set of opportunities and challenges for those willing to navigate its waters. While the financial value of art has been established by the consistent performance of top-ranked artists, there are several factors to consider when delving into this world. And in the current climate of economic uncertainty, high net worth individuals (HNWIs) are increasingly turning to alternative investments like art and collectibles.

Leo Wealth CIO Harmen Overdijk Surveys Key Opportunities and Challenges in Digital Transformation at Leading EAMs

Harmen Overdijk, CIO of the leading external asset management firm that connects the US and Asia, Leo Wealth, is committed to the firm’s efforts to upgrade its digital technologies. Indeed, he recently explained to Hubbis that the firm is investing heavily in upgrading its global platform across all facets of operations, investments, administration, analytics and reporting. The key missions are to boost capabilities, enhance capacity, improve productivity, elevate the investment offering, help team members with automation, and upgrade the client experience. Harmen was one of our three experts who spoke at the Hubbis Digital Dialogue event on December 7th that focused on the opportunities and challenges around digital transformation and implementation.

​​​​​​​Developments in Wealth Planning, Structuring and Family Succession in Asia

Estate, succession and legacy planning and structuring are of increasing importance across Asia, where wealth management practices, professionalism and more holistic solutions are improving apace. Moreover, as a generalisation, the founder generations are ageing, and the second generation and often also the third generations (both often armed with their Western educations and perspectives) are inheriting vast investment wealth and taking control of numerous family enterprises or even family offices. The mission for the panel of experts at the Hubbis Digital Dialogue of November 23 was to highlight the key trends taking place in Asia and to articulate how estate and wealth structuring is developing to help the region’s HNW and UHNW families plan appropriately for their collective futures. A fascinating discussion took place, and a detailed post-event survey of delegates added to the value input, from all of which we have carved out many valuable insights and words of advice for the wealth management community.

The Evolution of Private Client Investment Demand in Vietnam

Vietnam is a young and fast-developing market in terms of wealth management with a relatively limited offering of products, so far only a nascent advisory proposition and as yet only an emerging distribution infrastructure. A group of experts assembled on November 8 to analyse the state of the investment products market locally, the likely developments ahead as liberalisation gradually takes place and as appetite expands amongst HNW/UHNW clients, and amongst the growing ranks of mass affluent clients emerging on the wealth management scene. They also looked across to the growing logic for and avenues to facilitate foreign participation in what will be a long-term growth economy and significant capital market opportunities for many years to come. They pondered whether foreign investors should be tactical or strategic in their allocations and highlighted the challenges around building liquidity in the domestic markets. The overall impression was that progress needs to be oiled by education, awareness, the nurturing of talent, greater industry collaboration with the authorities and regulators, and a fair degree of patience to ensure the building blocks are in place. Events such as the bond market ‘crisis’ in the recent past will naturally set the market back, but awareness of risks will increase and a flight to quality is no bad thing for the evolutions of what is a market in its emerging phases.

Leo Wealth’s CIO and Team Members on Future Proofing the Independent Wealth Management Model

Does your independent wealth firm merely pay lip service to the concepts of a longer-term investment and structuring vision for its clients, to building strong relationships with the next generations, and also to robust wealth and legacy planning? Or are you connected to a firm that believes it has a genuine fiduciary responsibility to align itself as a partner for the future, both with its clients and also its key team members? If the latter, then you might be a client of or working with independent wealth manager Leo Wealth, whose founders and leaders have a stated and deep commitment to their fiduciary responsibility to clients and also to hiring and then nurturing key individuals whom they believe will help future-proof the business. Leo Wealth wants to create its own legacy, one in which both its seasoned and more youthful advisory talent will help drive new business amongst the current, next and also younger generations of clients. To learn more about their vision of corporatisation and how to future-proof the independent wealth management model, Hubbis met recently with Harmen Overdijk, CIO of Leo Wealth and original co-founder of the Capital Company, which was the Asia half of a 2021 merger with a US family office out of which the firm emerged in its current shape. We also met with several younger team members at the firm in Hong Kong to learn more about how Leo Wealth is hiring and nurturing its talent for the future. Vivian Tianyue Hu joined as an MD at the firm in early 2023, Holly Lai is an Associate Director and Chelsea Xu, a young Wealth Associate. Together, they offered their observations on the progression of the wealth management proposition at Leo Wealth, explained why the development of talent is so central to the enterprise, and shared some of their insights into how they perceive the evolution of future client demand and expectations.