“We take pride in being a trusted partner, not only in exclusive investment and financing solutions, but also in environmental, social and governance opportunities, legacy and estate planning, wealth planning, and philanthropy,” Deutsche Bank Private Bank declared in its pitch document for this award.
This neatly sums up life for – and the ever-growing roster of wealth-related services demanded by – ultra-high net-worth families. A few run costly family offices, but those that don’t, at this financially elevated altitude, expect the right kind of high-end planning. This includes the kinds of services – philanthropy, sustainability, succession planning – that all UHNWs need to ensure the next generation is well catered for, and that there is still a functioning planet to bequeath to them.
The Germany-based international lender manages assets worth more than €200 billion for UHNW clients, comprising 60% of its entire book across private banking, wealth management and its ‘bank for entrepreneurs’. Stefanie Rühl-Hoffmann is head of UHNW in wealth management and private banking Germany.
Key institutional highlights over the past year include the hiring of 70 new relationship managers, with a focus on emerging markets including the Middle East, and the opening of a fully licensed representative in South Africa, to serve frontier markets in sub-Saharan Africa.
Client-facing highlights over the period include: a €250 million fund-raise for The Square Capital Club, a private-capital investment platform that supports Italian entrepreneurs; and a €47 million discretionary portfolio management mandate for a southeast Asia-based business owner.
Deutsche also won the right to manage most of the bond and liquidity part of mandates invested by a client in a rival bank – €47 million of a total of €52 million.
Other standout offerings for individual clients include a €45 million mortgage refinancing in north Asia, and a €28 million DPM placement in Geneva for a southeast Asia-based customer.
The judges described its value proposition as “exceptional within the industry, encompassing almost all the needs” of UHNWs
Other highly tailored services abound. During the awards period, Deutsche’s fine-art lending programme, which offers global liquidity and bespoke loans against art and real estate, secured a €25 million art loan for a new, €250 million net-worth client with a venture capital background.
It is the kind of facility that impresses a client and fires the starting pistol on a long and hopefully fruitful wealth planning and investment management journey.
It is also worth noting the bank’s Tech Venture Growth Fund, a €300 million facility that gives more than 450 ultra-wealthy clients across 30 markets access to a diversified European venture-capital investment portfolio.
The judges scored Deutsche highly or very highly across the board. They described its value proposition as “exceptional within the industry, encompassing almost all the needs” of UHNWs, from investment advice, banking solutions, succession planning and philanthropy, to specialised finance. The range and quality of its offering, they added, proved the bank’s “commitment to addressing the comprehensive needs of these complex clients”.
They also lauded the bank’s growing ability to use its investment, credit and capital-markets capabilities to structure complex transactions for its wealthy clients. From top to bottom, this is an incredibly impressive offering.
