Wealth management: Why performance matters

Rothschild: Risk and reward | Lombard Odier: High performance from low risk | Dresdner: Bias and balance

INVESTMENT PERFORMANCE IS among the top-three deciding factors for high-net-worth clients when choosing a financial services provider. According to a survey of almost one hundred private banks by IBM Business Consulting Services, the strongest reason clients give for changing to a new private bank is poor investment performance. Financial services providers other than private banks have traditionally been seen as the ones delivering the investment performance that high-net-worth clients need.

At the end of 2006 it would be hard to find any private banking client that was unhappy with investment returns. Equity markets had performed well. The MSCI World Index was up more than 17% by the end of November, with the Europe Index returning more than 25% over the year. Hedge funds also had a good year despite a few hiccups along...