MASECO Co-Founder and Managing Partner at ‘The Summit for Wealth Management’ – UHNWIs, families, and entrepreneurs and their needs

Written by James Sellon, CFA, CFP™

On Tuesday, 9th May, MASECO Co-Founder and Managing Partner James Sellon sat on a panel discussing ultra-high net worth (UHNW) clients and how to deliver client satisfaction and trends.

James joined a panel of representatives from Artorius Wealth and Weatherbys Private Bank.

The conversation offered a real bird’s eye view of the UHNW market, with the panel covering everything from current challenges and what is at the forefront of discussions, such as inflation, to looking at other priorities outside of the investment space, including behavioural coaching, supporting the next generation and an increased focus on tax planning. This blog focuses on some aspects of the discussion and James’ input on how MASECO supports our UHNW clients.

The panel included both UK-focused wealth managers, as well as James representing UHNW international and dual-citizenship clients; there was much discussion around what is ‘top of mind’ for international clients, with James sharing his four key areas that are at the forefront for MASECO clients.

Holistic View

“Notwithstanding inflation, something incredibly important for international clients is obtaining a holistic view of their total assets via the creation of tailored reporting. Many UHNW families may receive a number of quarterly reports from multiple custodians and find capturing everything in a straightforward report challenging. There are a number of technology solutions, but nothing is quite perfect yet when you mix multi-currency and multi-jurisdiction. We recognise the challenges to delivering this to our clients and, like other high-quality firms, have been working on providing this holistic view for clients with cross -border investments. 

Tax Efficiency

Secondly, tax efficiency is extremely important, with most of our clients being international, as either American citizens living in the UK or with some form of a US footprint. The US/UK complexities can be everchanging, and it is hard for clients to know how daily actions and decisions may impact them from a tax perspective. We sometimes find associated tax related impacts were not fully explored before decisions are made, this can lead to consequences further down the line when it is often difficult or in some instances impossible to resolve. Therefore, tax-efficient financial planning is key for us, ensuring our wealth teams are working with clients closely and ensuring they are accessible to provide regular advice and stay at the forefront of everchanging tax rules.

Currency

Thirdly, our international clients come to us for wealth preservation to preserve and grow the real value of their capital and determine how best to do so. Currency is ‘the invisible risk,’ and given it can swing quite dramatically, this has a real impact on the client’s wealth. Capital allocation decisions around currency can be crucial.

Estate Planning

Finally, estate efficiency is a key consideration for our US/UK clients, ensuring that this is managed efficiently if they are paying estate tax in multiple jurisdictions. Naturally, estate matters are also ever-changing, matters may be settled and sorted, but then children can start to move abroad, and it may make sense to restructure again at this stage. Often estates are not structured with the beneficiary’s tax situation in mind – especially if they move country”.

– James Sellon, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, MASECO

Finally, the conversation turned to client service and the big question of delivering an outstanding client experience while ‘squaring the circle’ of offering bespoke advice coupled with a streamlined process. James offered MASECO’s view on the topic,

“Infrastructure is key, underpinned by data integrity. High-quality data integrity is incredibly easy to let slip, so you must maintain a laser-sharp focus on this area. With high-quality data integrity, one can build infrastructure to deliver bespoke solutions for clients.

As well as this, at MASECO, we ask clients in the initial few meetings what they would like to see in the next 24 months to judge our relationship a success. Whether the client is a divorcee or has their own asset management company, every client wants us to emphasise a different element of our proposition. At MASECO, we have 19 wealth managers, so it is integral to know that clients are receiving the same high-quality experience across the firm. We achieve this through internal workflows within our CRM (Client Relationship Management) system. We are by no means perfect but internal workflows using proprietary technology or bought technology helps to ensure a consistent client experience. It is important that every client can have a bespoke experience with their wealth manager, but the workflows and processes behind this enable us to deliver on the compliance aspects while keeping our advice consistent.

Finally, and this might sound trite, it is important to know who the client is. Every decision made for an individual client is understood across all teams in the business, from investment management to financial planning and operations. Understanding the unique client requirements for every client across the firm enables one to ensure that everything you do is designed to improve the client experience. At MASECO, we are lucky as we focus on a specific type of client. Being specific and deliberate enables you to stay focused and, with that, achieve very high Net Promotor Scores and, hopefully, client referrals as a result…”

– James Sellon, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, MASECO

We thank Foxon Media and the team behind the TSWM (The Summit for Wealth Management) conference for a fantastic and incredibly insightful day.

The Legal Stuff

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