PROTECTING & ENHANCING THE FAMILY EFFECTIVELY
Taurus Wealth is a multi-family office with 300+ clients from Asia, Europe, Middle-east & Africa offering tailored advice via its advisory model that is bank and product agnostic. Clients pay a fee. The group had US$3bn in Assets under Advice (AuA) and management last year and a number of initiatives presage further growth, getting a Highly Commended (HC) nod from the judges at the virtual PBI Global Wealth Awards 2021 for Best Family Office. It also got a commendation for Most Effective Investment Service Offering.
The initiatives that bode well for Taurus Wealth’s future growth are a hiring spree, particularly in the Dubai office, with an extra 25 financial advisors, investments specialists and support staff added to the payroll this past year.
Greater client coverage across more than 20 countries is now possible, with the Singapore and Zurich offices also crucial elements in its growth plan. Taurus Wealth AG was incorporated in Zurich only last year after a strategic partnership that enhanced Taurus’ booking footprint. The Singapore office is long established and has US$2bn in AuA managed by 13 advisors and four multiclass investment specialists, plus 15 support staff.
Other strategic initiatives that Taurus launched last year include:
Private equity deal desk: Established in 2020, this unit focusses on partner management, networking, due-diligence and origination of deals in the Private Equity (PE) space. It has already sourced over 15 deals for clients.
Expanded digital capability: In 2020, Taurus partnered with a fintech to launch a white-labelled offering of three distinct and digitally managed strategies giving clients a cost-efficient digital investment option. It was also the first authorized Member Participant for BondbloX (from BondeValue), which is an innovative blockchain-based Bond Exchange that allows for transparent trading and holding of conventional Bonds in fractional modes (units of $1,000 each).
Enhanced Fund Management regime: Taurus adapted the Variable Capital Company (VCC) regime launched in Singapore last year. This means its in-house niche strategies and feeder strategies for preferred third-party funds can be transitioned to the new VCC structure. This provides easy, cost-effective access to various nice strategies to enhance portfolio performance, helping it achieve its second commendation for an effective offering, among other things.
In 2021, it launched four funds via the VCC structure to give clients the ability to decide if they want to join growing investment trends supporting social impact causes and the Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) agenda.
For clients Taurus cautioned on the impact of Covid-19 on the markets as early as the end of January 2020 and proactively de-risked client portfolios well ahead of the market correction in March 2020 to reduce leverage and the threat of margin calls. Other client-centric investment positives included:
Taurus Managed/Advised Strategies delivered returns of between 7% to 50%. Cautious participation in Covid-19 market rebounds last year ultimately delivered highly positive returns over the course of the year.
Third party alternative funds that are actively monitored by Taurus delivered in a generally neutral market. The best performing returned +34.7% in 2020.
The new initiatives described above, and continuity in business processes despite the pandemic, ensured that client sign-ups rose last year with 32 newcomer families in 2020, two-and-a-half times the previous year’s figure.