Research Reports

Targeting Entrepreneurs in Wealth Management 2008: Western Europe and Asia-Pacific

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 15:17:06 -0400

Introduction
In recent years, entrepreneurs have come to be seen as a key client segment for wealth managers, offering significant scope for future growth. This report explores some of the fundamental characteristics of entrepreneurs and business owners and considers how these clients' requirements are dictating the development of the wealth management proposition.

Scope
- Presents a profile of business owners and entrepreneurs, based on Datamonitor surveys in Europe and Asia Pacific;
- Assesses wealth managers' strategies for targeting the business owner / entrepreneur market.
- Sizes and forecasts the business owner / entrepreneur market in selected countries.

Report Highlights
Entrepreneurs are an attractive group for several reasons. The combination of personal and business concerns means that their financial needs are varied, encompassing portfolio management, estate planning, corporate finance and international services. This offers strong business potential for wealth managers.

Increasingly, wealth management services for entrepreneurs are more likely to resemble institutional or corporate banking services. Private bankers recognise that entrepreneurs, particularly those in the wealth creation phase of their business life cycle, have limited liquidity and are most interested in strategies for growing their business.

In particular, business owners and entrepreneurs favor private equity and property investments. More than half of European and Asia-Pacific wealth managers said that their clients exhibited strong demand for these asset classes.

Reasons to Purchase
- Develop your business owner / entrepreneur proposition based on insight into clients' characteristics and needs;
- Identify the products and services that are most in demand among business owners and entrepreneurs;
-Compare your competitors' strategies for targeting this core segment.

Mortgages in Australia 2008

Mon, 05 May 2008 14:57:33 -0400

Introduction
The Australian mortgage market is facing a number of internal and external challenges. Record low housing affordability is pressuring mortgagors, and the global credit crisis has increased funding costs for lenders. This report puts the current situation in its historical perspective, describes current trends in the market, and analyzes potential future developments.

Scope
Includes a comprehensive overview of the Australian residential mortgage market.

Draws upon a large Datamonitor's consumer survey to gain insights into the current mindset of the Australian mortgagor.

Includes market overview, analysis of customers, product attributes, competitor breakdown and future developments.

Provides three scenario forecasts for lending commitments in Australia until 2012.

Report Highlights
The turbulence in international credit markets has led to increased funding costs for Australian lenders. This has caused several of the Australian banks to revise their estimates of profitability for the next year downwards, and to raise their rates.

A higher degree of leverage for mortgagors may be a cause for concern in the event of a market downturn. Rising interest rates combined with falling property prices would leave some mortgagors overcommitted, especially if the mortgage was taken out with the expectation of refinancing.

The internet has already altered the way that mortgages are researched, as it has become very common for prospective mortgagors to compare prices and features from different lenders online. Actually applying for a mortgage over the internet is as yet quite uncommon, as consumers often desire face-to-face contact for such important decisions.

Card Issuer Profile: Bank of America

Thu, 01 May 2008 16:28:20 -0400

With more than 160 million cards in issue, Bank of America is one of the world's biggest issuers. It has continued to expand its cards business at home and abroad both organically, particularly through the use of affinity marketing, and by the acquisition of MBNA.The company is highly prolific in the US,with more than 55 million customer relationships, while MBNA is the largest issuer in the UK.

Reasons
to Purchase

Gain a detailed understanding of Bank of America's strategy and approach in the card issuing space.

Find out Datamonitor's opinion on Bank of America's future outlook in cards.

Learn how Datamonitor rates Bank of America's card operations in its unique competitor benchmark operation.

Global Wealth Predictions 2008

Wed, 19 Mar 2008 13:46:11 -0400

Global Wealth Predictions 2008 provides Datamonitor's definitive view on the direction of the global wealth management market for the year ahead. Using the Wealth Team's extensive knowledge, supported by insight from leading industry executives, it provides a concise executive-level view.

The wealth management brand

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 16:31:33 -0500

A firm's brand is reinforced through multiple layers of corporate policy, strategy and practice. Beyond explicit branding messages that may be communicated through websites, promotions and public relations, for example, clients also experience the brand through customer service, distribution channels and sales and marketing policies. Some industry practitioners believe that, while 'old wealth' client segments, including inheritors, rely very heavily on word-of-mouth referrals, 'new wealth' client segments are likely to be more open to a strong, familiar brand, developed through targeted media and promotions. The latter group includes executives, entrepreneurs and expatriates. Wealth managers also conduct branding research among intermediaries and strategies to target them include advertising and sponsored events. Preferred advertising media include trade publications, while events take the form of conferences, dinners, lunches and other bespoke events for the most important intermediary firms.

Weathering the Storm in Life and Pensions

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 16:28:51 -0500

There are conflicting views among wealth managers and economists, as well as in the media, about the extent and duration of sub-prime mortgage defaults and the resulting credit squeeze. Datamonitor predicts that the impact on financial services will be significant, and will last through 2009. We have produced a series of reports to identify the strategies to help them insulate their revenues.

Despite the fact that life companies will be less hard hit than other areas of the asset management industry complacency must be avoided. To many investors who do not understand the intricacies and variations in investment strategies, all institutions may be tarred with the same brush in the short term, despite differences in the long term. The results of a Datamonitor survey show that 34% of advisers surveyed are unconcerned by the possibility of a recession in 2008, despite the turmoil in global markets, huge losses by key financial institutions and the slowdown in house prices. However providers are relying on advisers to communicate their strategies to clients. The consensus in the market is that life companies should avoid spending large sums on developing new products, focusing instead on improved customer targeting, marketing and cross-selling the existing product range. It is about communication and consolidation rather than new product ranges.

Product Innovation and the Impact on Advisors 2007

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 16:22:14 -0500

Financial Advisors’ Views of Product Innovation uses information from Datamonitor’s quarterly survey of financial advisors to assess their views of newly launched financial products, it examines what products appeal to them and which providers they most commonly use. The report presents the views of over 100 randomly selected IFAs.

Of the surveyed IFAs, the majority of their business was conducted in pensions and life-based investment products, while a large proportion of advisors claimed that mortgage products accounted for no part of their business. The majority of surveyed financial advisors stated that they prefer variable annuities over traditional annuities for producing income, while they also said that they significantly favour income drawdown for income generation over variable annuities. The majority of financial advisors offer their customers offshore bond investments, while the most commonly used providers for this investments include Skandia, Standard Life and Norwich Union. Most advisors use offshore bonds for investment and inheritance tax planning.

The Wealth Management Super League

Zachary Pentel — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 08:53:20 -0400

This Strategic Insight Report assesses the issue of organizational scale in the private wealth management market. It looks at the forces behind the emergence of large scale international private banks and compares and contrasts the strategic development of five of the world's largest players. It profiles the key players and discusses their current strategies and progress.

Report Highlights

Political and economic liberalization means that the markets available for entry at present is larger than ever before, forcing the top tier of wealth managers to expand to maintain their global status. Rapid development of the BRIC economies, creating a significant class of wealthy individuals, makes these markets highly attractive.

UBS Wealth Management continues to be the clear leader among global wealth managers in terms of assets under management, with over double the AuM of its nearest rival, Credit Suisse Private Banking. With EUR880.8bn under management, UBS WM alone holds 34% of the total value of assets under management for the entire top ten in the super league.

Some of the top players in the wealth management super league are undergoing or have recently experienced major changes in their organization, either as part of wider transformations of the parent bank or in the private banking unit. In some ways, significant overhauls that affect the private bank can be beneficial but also present challenges.

Q&A, Partnerships and Organic Growth in Asset Management, Q2 2007

Zachary Pentel — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 08:50:38 -0400

This tracker covers merger/acquisition activity globally in the asset management space. It also highlights the strategic partnerships, and expansion (or contraction) of existing businesses. There is also a special focus on the important emerging markets: China, India, CEE and the Middle East.

Report Highlights

The major news in the world of mergers and acquisitions in quarter two 2007 has been the proposed takeover of ABN AMRO by Fortis, Santander and Royal Bank of Scotland
Most partnerships in quarter 2 2007 have been driven by asset managers wishing to expand their range of available funds.
The majority of organic growth in quarter 2 2007 has occurred through expansion into new regions

Retail Savings and Investments: Global Industry Guide

Zachary Pentel — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 08:47:55 -0400

Datamonitor's Retail Savings & Investments Global Industry Guide is an essential resource for top-level data and analysis covering the retail savings & investments industry. It includes detailed data on market size and segmentation, textual analysis of the key trends and competitive landscape, and profiles of the leading companies. This incisive report provides expert analysis on a global, regional and country basis.

This report covers the following:

Contains an executive summary and data on value, volume and segmentation
Provides textual analysis of the industry's prospects, competitive landscape and leading companies
Covers Global, European, Asia-Pacific & 5 individual country markets
Includes a five-year forecast of the industry