Some 100,000 Americans control investable assets of more than USD 10 million each, according to a UBS estimate. In total, these assets account for fully one-third of all assets controlled by individuals with more than USD 1 million to invest.
UBS has now moved to provide these ultra-wealthy individuals with the specialized services and advice they need. Our recently launched Private Wealth Management Group (PWMG) is aimed at clients with a minimum of USD 10 million to invest, although average account size is substantially larger.
With staff already on the ground in many major financial centers including New York, Chicago, and San Francisco, the PWMG plans to locate representatives at some 50 offices across the country by mid-2005. These staff will operate from existing offices and, to a large extent, will be recruited from the ranks of the business’s most experienced financial advisors.
As in all UBS’s wealth management businesses, advice stands at the center of the relationship with the client. The aim is to provide clients with a complete range of planning solutions both for specific issues and for their overall wealth situation.
It includes a consultancy service on managing concentrated stock positions – a challenge commonly faced by corporate executives and owner-entrepreneurs – as well as advice on developing long-range wealth transfer strategies, structures for philanthropy, lending and liability management, and effective trust and estate planning.
Based on this planning advice, experts work with financial advisors to create investment strategies designed to achieve the client’s long-term objectives. Services provided include comprehensive asset allocation capabilities, as well as performance measurement.
This range of advice-driven capabilities reflects a growing trend in the US market for ultra high net worth individuals to concentrate their primary relationship on a single source of high-quality financial advice.
Although the PWMG offering is adapted to the conditions of the US market, its underlying philosophy is identical to that of the existing initiative for ultra high net worth clients of our Wealth Management business in Europe, Latin America, Asia Pacific and other regions.
Like its counterpart, the PWMG will take full advantage of solutions and expertise from all over UBS. In particular, the expertise of the Investment Bank and Global Asset Management businesses will be harnessed to meet the “quasi-institutional” needs of ultra high net worth individual.
