VARIETY IS THE spice of life. The adage is significant for wealth managers who are keen to secure their future in Hong Kong's increasingly competitive financial planning and wealth management sector.
The central theme of this year's Wealth Management Conference, hosted late last month by the Institute of Financial Planners of Hong Kong and Courses & Seminars Limited also focused on variety. About 150 wealth management practitioners who serve the needs of high net worth clients were reminded that today's clients were more sophisticated and demanded better investment returns.
To succeed in their profession, wealth managers had to broaden their horizons by offering the latest products in the market and understanding the true needs of their customers better.
Henry Lam, executive committee member of the institute, said there were many millionaires in Hong Kong and they were all potential clients for wealth managers.
He said about one in 20 Hongkongers were millionaires and that the number of billionaires was also rising.
Mr Lam said there were 64,114 local financial planning practitioners to serve the millionaires in Hong Kong. However, one of the major threats to the wealth management industry was the number of unskilled financial advisers present.
According to the institute there are 2,000 certified financial planners, although some practitioners have other forms of certification.
