Winners rationale

UBS Wealth Management has come closer than any large-scale financial services provider at striking a perfect balance between client-centricity and business scalability. This is no mean feat considering the sheer scale and spread of its operations across APAC, the increasingly complex nature of its clientele and their needs, and widespread disruption headlined by rapid technological advancement.

At the heart of UBS’s proposition in Asia is a commitment to guide clients across all life stages – from the aspirational period of wealth accumulation, through wealth preservation to succession and legacy planning – placing equal emphasis on three fundamental aspects of a HNWI’s life: business, family and passion. Overseen by some of the bank’s most senior and experienced practitioners guide the bank’s HNW strategy in APAC and oversee governance, UBS WM’s client-centric advisory model is underpinned by an industry-leading platform and a dedicated presence across Asia’s major financial hubs, including booking centres in China, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and Taiwan, and delivered by the industry’s largest frontline which is guided by a CIO office that was without peer in 2017.

UBS is a staunch champion of asset allocation and core-satellite investing. Clients are actively encouraged to delegate responsibilities – and delegate they do, with UBS boasting a mandate and funds penetration rate that surpasses its largest peers. Beyond the vanilla, clients are exposed to a range of unique offerings that, in many cases, are driven by the latest research and views on emerging trends globally, including behavioural finance. For instance, UBS’s Systematic Allocation Portfolio funds address loss aversion and investors’ tendency for performance-destroying behaviour by dynamically shifting the equity allocations – based on market signals. This possibility to adjust equity allocations significantly is unique in mutual funds. Similarly, UBS continues to strike a chord with Asian HNW investors with a penchant for alternative assets, providing access to unique private equity opportunities normally reserved for institutional clients. Its multi-vintage private equity fund of funds solution, with a low minimum entry, offers HNWIs true diversification across investment types, strategies and managers, geographies and vintages.

UBS is also at the cutting edge of digital innovation in wealth management, putting ideas into practice at a greater clip than almost any other private bank in the region. Beyond disseminating timely content to advisors and clients alike via multiple digital channels, UBS was the first private bank in Asia to roll out a digital flat-fee advisory solution, proving itself to be one step ahead of the competition. UBS’s HNW clients in the region are also spoilt for choice in terms of the quantity and quality of events and forums the bank hosts – its UBS Wealth Insights conference is renowned for its quality of speakers, while CIO WM client calls provide near-instantaneous guidance on market-moving events and their implications on holding.

By getting the fundamentals rights, the results have followed. In 2017, the Asia Pacific region once again led the way in terms of net new money inflows, pushing invested assets well beyond the US$300 billion milestone. Moreover, Asia Pacific today accounts for around 30% of group WM (ex-Americas) profits and invested assets and, with China firmly in the private bank’s sights, the APAC region is set to become even more important to UBS as a whole.