Customer acquisition and retention in European wealth management 2008

Introduction
Facing the prospect of an economic downturn in 2008, wealth managers in Europe are challenged to reassure existing clients about their ability to continue meeting their investment needs, even as intense competition for new customers and share of wallet is sustained. This report captures wealth managers’ views on the most effective strategies for attracting and keeping clients.

Scope
Reports on the views of 140 wealth managers in Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, the Netherlands Spain, Sweden and Switzerlan; Identifies the most effective customer acquisition and retention strategies in the European wealth market; Highlights important differences in approach across countries and regions.

Highlights
Brand, image and reputation’ scores a close second to quality of service as an important criterion of selection among clients. Recent turmoil in the global credit markets and the current climate of economic stability have the potential to heighten the importance of these factors. Added to the challenges of clients’ use of multiple providers and growing tendency to change their wealth manager is the fact that just below half of participating European providers manages less than 10% of their clients’ portfolios. Wealth managers had the least confidence in techniques such as: encouraging cross-selling by relationship managers, preferential pricing and incentivizing relationship managers to sell additional products. Only Spanish wealth managers attest to the success of preferential pricing as a strategy for increasing share of wallet in their market.

Reasons to Purchase
Understand your competitors' approaches to customer acquisition and retention; Identify the important drivers of attraction and retention among your clients; Make cross-country comparisons and plan your strategies for different jurisdictions.