Those present were the great and the good from the offshore life companies servicing intermediaries across the globe – primarily in the UK, Europe, Middle East and Asia and the fund houses – and the fund houses looking to have their funds hosted on the offshore platforms.
While there are a great deal of differences in distribution in each of the jurisdictions, tax treatments and investment solutions, a lot of the client needs are remarkably similar.
“The number one fear is inflation!” bellowed Jonathan Willcocks, managing director and global head of retail sales for M&G. Inflation, then income, preserving capital and funding retirement are what he says clients are telling him and IFAs all around the world.
Alex Hoctor-Duncan, MD and head of EMEA retail business at BlackRock, said the same thing, though in a slightly more reserved tone.
The big challenge, as he sees it, is people living longer, in a more volatile world, investing in assets that aren’t working hard enough and that are being eaten away by inflation anyway.
For him, income and asset preservation (i.e. negating the threat of inflation) are two of the biggest client drivers.
What Willcocks says is needed is a new mindset, around saving for 20 years-plus to counter the 20-years-plus of inflation we have coming.
Hoctor-Duncan talked about the need to be increasingly more flexible, designing portfolios for clients that will take them “from cradle to grave”.
So rather than the micro topics of regulation, fund design, charging structures etc that it is easy to get embroiled in, the next two or three decades are going to need a far greater strategic change that wealth managers will drive. As clients continue to be forced to be more and more self-sufficient and self-financing for longer, it is those who are prepared to deliver outcome-based solutions rather than simply products that will win out.
And the earlier they start to deliver, the better…
