GOOD SERVICES & PEOPLE CENTRAL TO A FAMILY WIN
Centrum Wealth Ltd (CWL) was set up in India over a decade ago to offer distribution and investment advisory services across asset classes to wealthy clients with over US$1 million, spanning equity, fixed income, alternate and overseas investments, and real estate. Its ever-expanding and growing business won Best Family Office at the virtual PBI Global Wealth Awards 2021.
CWL pursues an open architecture approach, so clients are not locked into products and enjoy access to the entire market. Its offer is powered by an experienced team of experts fluent in international investment options and taxation advice, through to succession planning and structuring, and a modern technology platform that executes their wishes easily and keeps clients fully updated.
The wealth manager also caters to select ultra high-net worth individual (UHNWI) families in recent times. It on-boarded 25 last year to take its cohort to over 100 since the establishment of the family office four years ago. Assets under Management (AuM) for the family office now stand at US$1 billion and new services, such as legal and philanthropy assistance, are being added all the time.
New initiatives include investment in an enhanced website, a new communication infrastructure and education for its 112 relationship managers (RMs) to increase personalization and technology capabilities during the Covid-19 pandemic. Clients and RMs can now:
Access investment data on demand.
Complete tasks effectively, efficiently, and intuitively.
Access the best of the digital and physical worlds, via what the bank terms its new ‘phy-gital’ client servicing model.
An iConnect collaborative platform has been built that allows teams to exchange information more easily via:
One Paper Lane: this equates to paperless onboarding of clients as digitalization across the bank increases.
360-Degree View: As digitalization increases RMs and clients get greater, easier access to portfolios in their entirety at speed.
CWL is focused on ‘next gen’ successors and their differing needs and interest in the Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) agenda. It has noticed, and acted upon, its teams’ numerous observations that youngsters are not inclined to take on the reins of traditional family businesses anymore. The ability to interrogate data and digitally interact is also a desire for ‘next gens’ so the bank’s investment in digitalization will pay off in this respect, as will its identification of what the future generation wants, thereby safeguarding its future.