“I was recommended to a large wealth management firm in London. They are well known and have beautiful offices in the City. We moved our entire portfolio to them in 2014. Late in 2019 we finally pulled everything out.
They were expensive, slow to react, inaccurate at times. (we regularly noticed stupid mistakes in their paperwork) but worst of all, we realised there was a total lack of transparency in how we were being managed. We discovered they used third party platforms which were never declared to us and resulted in us being locked into funds.
We only discovered this when we informed them of our intention to depart. It was a horrendous complex experience.
In effect our “wealth” was being managed for their benefit, not ours. Our money was pooled. The expensive wealth managers who dealt with us were well dressed glorified salesman.
Little wonder the sector is in crisis. Never again.”
This is a comment made by an FT reader. It is a thought process that more people are starting to recognise. Investors employ people to do better than they can themselves. And for those who don’t care about performance, they end up paying the most expensive portfolio administration you can ever imagine. On both counts, wealth management is in crisis. More and more investors are starting to re-think the traditional wealth management model.
This reader had a bad experience that prompted their exit. Mostly that relates to administration and service rather than perceived performance. In most cases, bad administration and bad service are rare, which means, investors in turn rarely recognise the crisis they are in. “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix” is something the wealth managers rely on.