Asia’s Wealth Industry and its Drive to Propagate More Personalised and Enjoyable Content & Delivery

Jessica is the President of Leo Wealth, a global wealth management firm created in 2021 to bring together The Capital Company, Leo Group, and BFT Financial Group. She sat as one of our expert panellists on the March 31 Hubbis Digital Dialogue event that focused on how private banks and wealth management firms can improve client communication, engagement and experience. We have distilled some of her very valuable and informed observations about how to achieve significant progress in all these vital areas.

Jessica was a Founding Partner, Responsible Officer and Compliance Officer of The Capital Company Hong Kong Limited, which is an independent asset management firm formed in early 2017. Prior to her time at The Capital Company, Jessica co-founded EXS Capital Asia Limited in 2008, and served as a Responsible Officer and head of Operations and Compliance for the firm until the end of 2016. She and her team built a substantial asset management and financial planning practice during their time at EXS, which in 2017 became part of The Capital Company.

Jessica’s expertise spans many areas of individual financial, regulatory and tax issues, particularly in relation to US citizens living in Asia. She and her team specialise in providing comprehensive wealth management and estate and tax planning services to US citizens expatriated to Asia and to individuals and families with US related planning needs.

A changing word requires agility

“The wealth management landscape has changed,” she told delegates. “The pandemic has really forced investment professionals to think more deeply and more creatively about how they engage with clients and how they use technology in a way that is personalised and enhances that engagement.”

There had, she explained, been too great a focus on quantity over quality, and as a result, that overcommunication actually had a negative effect.

“There is still too much content that is not well thought out, that is not necessarily relevant to the clients, that feels impersonal, that is tough to digest. It adds up to being overwhelming,” she observed. “In our experience, the right way to communicate is often not to say anything until you have thoughtful, relevant content to deliver.”

Relevance and personalisation

She said that the individual’s appetite for content and contact varies. “As an asset manager, we have a regulatory obligation to reach out to our clients on a regular basis, but beyond those demands, we strive to deliver monthly detailed content specific to the assets that the clients own and relevant to the way we build portfolios,” she reported. “It is detailed, interesting, entertaining we think, and strives to remove some of the ‘noise’ and emotion that often filters into personal investing that cause people to make bad decisions.”

She explained that when they began the monthly missive, clients were less in need of conversations, as the report covered most of their areas of interest and was relevant to their portfolios.

Freeing up the advisors

“What that means for us as a business is that we have more human capital and more resources to devote to clients who truly have needs,” she said. “We all have high and low maintenance clients, those who might also go through personal or career turmoil, and then need greater support. Accordingly, we need to use our resources wisely, so we are there for this personal touch as and when needed.”

She extrapolated from these comments, adding that personalisation is central to the proposition, whether in the content produced, or the way it is communicated to clients, or the sales and marketing strategy. “The best outcome for the end user will always emerge from having taken the time to understand the client needs and for relevant information and advice to be reflected throughout the whole engagement process,” she said.

Leverage external skills

She said that working with external parties to refine content and delivery can be a tremendous investment that ultimately benefits your end client by tailoring the strategy, content, and communication directly to those clients.

“Ultimately, that is how you improve sales, by nurturing and building the relationships that help you to grow your business sustainably,” she concluded.