Platform for affluent individuals to plan for future
KUALA LUMPUR: OCBC Bank (Malaysia) Berhad yesterday unveiled a specialised platform for affluent individuals to plan for their own and loved ones’ future based on their “life goals”.
Premier Life Goals, an expansion of the earlier-launched OCBC Life Goals, provides premier banking clients with a multi-pronged approach featuring transfer of wealth and the retirement of a spouse, alongside the fundamentals offered by OCBC Life Goals.
According to Anne Leh, head of Branch Distribution and Premier Banking, the vast ly differing needs of the affluent makes Premier Life Goals a necessary development of the initial model.
“For the masses, the priority is to accumulate the required amounts to ensure they are able to retire comfortably and see to the key obligation of their children’s education.
“The case is markedly different for the affluent, who are more concerned about seeing to all of this while ensuring their wealth gets transferred properly in due course and that their loved ones’ futures are duly secured according to their wishes,” she said.
Customers will be assisted by their OCBC Premier Relationship Manager who will go through with them a comprehensive financial assessment that ends with a summary of where he or she stands in relation to their stated goals. The programme then suggests broad customisable financial solutions on how to move forward.
“This is our goal-based advisory approach where we start off by understanding the clients’ needs.
“Once we know where a person stands in relation to his or her goals, our Premier Relationship Managers are able to walk them through a range of financial solutions to grow their investments in a disciplined manner alongside optimising returns through a diversified portfolio that provides potential capital and/or regular returns.
“There is also an active investing option that provides for short-term products that leverage on market opportunities when there is a surplus for use.
“The solutions offered would involve sophisticated products backed by our wealth advisory team’s services and delivered through the Premier One Team, a dedicated team of specialists.
“These would include endowment plans, unit trusts, bonds, dual currency investments and structured investments. Value-added services provided would include foreign currency solutions for child education, overseas property financing and retirement plans and wealth transfer recommendation.
“Our business banking solutions are there too for our customers who have their own businesses,” Leh said.
The launch of Premier Life Goals was accompanied by a marketing campaign titled, “Bringing your goals to life is our ambition”.
The campaign video zeroes in on higher education, a theme that OCBC’s insights reveal to be one of the “life goals” their Premier Banking clients often struggle with.
“This is due very much to the differences in perspective between parents and their children. The intent of our marketing campaign is to convey that OCBC empathises with our clients and that we incorporate this into our advisory to help them achieve their life goals,” Ms Leh added.
On the primacy of the premier banking segment, she said this is a group that is growing exponentially in the country; so suitable solutions must be developed for them as the country adapts to their burgeoning presence.
“We are delighted to share that our own Premier Banking customer base has achieved double-digit growth year-onyear, and we are looking to build on this with Premier Life Goals,” she added.