METHODOLOGY
The Top Private Banks & Wealth Managers survey is researched and prepared by Intellidex, a specialist financial services research house. This is the 11th anniversary of the survey, which we develop every year to ensure that it best reflects the dynamics of the wealth management and private banking industries and that we are delivering a product that meets the needs of clients who make use of such firms.
Format
The survey still has two main prongs: a questionnaire completed by participating firms and a comprehensive online client survey. Intellidex judges allocate points to the firms in certain categories but client rankings generally contribute the most to the overall scores.
The questions we ask clients are wide-ranging and are designed to assess the different strengths and weaknesses of the private banks and wealth managers. The main areas of focus, though, are on satisfaction levels with products and services as well as with investment returns, whether clients believe they are getting value for money and whether clients would recommend their service providers to others.
We also ask questions relating to why clients use private banks and wealth managers and whether their specific needs are being met.
Clients add comments on aspects not covered by our multiple-choice format of questions. Here we receive some valuable insights that are used to inform the judging process.
In 2020 we revised the format, reintroducing the case study concept. All firms respond to one case study while those that participate in the top end of the spectrum, the internationally wealthy family archetype, were asked to respond to another case study specific to that archetype.
This year 8,669 people participated in the client survey, slightly down from last year’s record of 9,817 participants.
Judging
In terms of the overall judging, we understand that firms have different areas of focus. Thus, in our minds, the individual archetype winners are at least as important as the overall awards.
If a firm is the best in the industry in its specific area of focus and does not pretend to be all things to all people, it deserves recognition for that area of excellence. If a firm does not compete in a particular market segment, we do not penalise it for not having an offering for that archetype.
The award for the top individual relationship manager, introduced in 2019, is chosen from nominations and motivations from clients.
The judges this year were Intellidex awards research manager Heidi Dietzsch, senior banks analyst Nolwandle Mthombeni and project editor Colin Anthony.
Awards
There are two overall awards, one for big firms that are part of a larger financial institution and a separate one for boutique operators. We also award the top firm in each archetype.
The full list of awards are:
Top Wealth Manager of the Year: Large financial institutions category
Top Wealth Manager of the Year: Boutique firms category
Archetype awards: This year we have tweaked the archetypes following industry feedback. They are: lump-sum investor; young professional; entrepreneur; executive; retiree; and wealthy family.
People’s Choice Award: Determined solely by client rankings, this has two categories — one for wealth management services and one for private banking services.
Top Private Bank: This award is determined by the client survey, based solely on transactional and lending services.
Top Individual Relationship Manager: An award for the top relationship manager, based on client nominations and the motivation they provide.
The table below summarises the mix of methodologies used to score firms for the awards: