What is Wealth Management and what makes a great Wealth Manager

Let’s just get what real Wealth Management is about out of the way first. There was a time when most very wealthy people kept their money in massive safes complete with security guard or put their cash away in Fixed Deposits, Real Estate and gold. However Fixed Deposit returns are too low, real estate too illiquid and gold, well let’s be realistic, how much gold do you want to hoard in your tijori. Wealthy people also had lots of advisors, they had accountants, lawyers and even bankers but they really had to depend on themselves to manage their estate. That was fine when you were Wooster and had nothing but time, but these days wealthy people are not just large business families but also corporate honchos and neither have either a Jeeves or the time to spend hours managing their money. What they want is a one-stop shop. One person who takes everything they own and allocates it efficiently across multiple Asset Classes (we will discuss asset classes in another post about wealth management) to deliver a return commensurate with the risk they are willing to take with their wealth. This means their wealth can be invested into gold, wine, equities – both public and private, commodities, art and even stamp collections.  The investors aim is to enhance his or her wealth. The advisors aim is to deliver a full range of services, right from opening bank accounts to mark to marketing mutual fundinvestments and getting you that must have invitation to that all important golf tournament. That’s right. Being an advisor, means your client relationship skills are almost as important as your product knowledge. But let’s come back to that later.

Wealth management is a consulting activity in that you are a solution provider and are therefore unbiased in your advised and are purely driven by the client’s needs. That means, you do not push the client to buy equity or art. You built a portfolio that meets your client’s requirements depending on their risk appetite. You understand what he wants and then offer a range of products that meet his investment criteria. This means your knowledge of investment products have to be exemplary and all encompassing. You need to know everything from which mutual funds or debt funds to invest in to who the next big artist is or atleast know someone who knows who the next big artist is, or where the next emerging real estate options are. Your client wants you to be ahead of the curve so she doesn’t have to and can focus on making all that wealth. How do you learn about products? One way is to read and the other is to take short wealth management courses in Wealth Management like the Diploma in Retail Banking and Wealth Management at Imarticus Learning.

Many wealth management courses are part of Retail Banking courses and retail banking certifications in India. To learn more about what is taught in a Diploma in Retail Banking and Wealth Management, please visit our program website http://imarticus.org/diploma-in-retail-banking-and-wealth-management