The wealth management industry is constantly promoting deeper client relationships, but the reality is that advisers change frequently to prevent outflows, St. James’s Place’s Hong Kong CEO Oliver Wickham told Global Private Banker.
With the growing complexity of wealth management needs, not only in investments but also in succession, tax, and a raft of other areas, deeper relationships are key to delivering the effective solution. Certain subjects can be quite personal, such as death or divorce, and clients may not be willing to engage in in-depth discussions until they are become familiar with a relationship manager. However, this may be difficult to achieve in cases where there is fear that relationship with the individual gets too sticky.
“Banks often change clients’ relationship manager every two to three years,” said Oliver Wickham, CEO of St. James’s Place’s (SJP) in Hong Kong, in an interview with Global Private Banker.
“That could be to manage the risk of that relationship manager leaving and taking the clients with them and, therefore, you’re constantly building a new relationship with a new adviser.”
Sweet spot: USD1-10 million
This rotation may be particularly true for affluent and high net worth clients, in contrast with the ultra-high net worth segment, which requires more bespoke services that demand higher fees, such as the so-called “one-bank” solutions that involve cross-divisional collaboration. According to Wickham, SJP targets a niche of expatriate clients with investable assets of USD1-10 million.
“Where we stand out is the personalised relationship and having an adviser that doesn’t just know your name, but they also know your spouse’s name, your children’s name and they care about you. As a result of deep and longstanding relationships, they know your longer term goals,” he added.
Improving financial literacy
Still, SJP believes there is much more room for growth. In a recent survey, the British wealth manager found that more than 40% of expats in Hong Kong and Singapore do not use financial advisers to manage their global wealth, attributing the gap to a lack of financial literacy. More than 70% of respondents in both markets do not consider themselves highly financially literate and many have not taken proactive steps to invest or plan, resulting in opportunity costs and tax-related losses.
To improve literacy rates, Wickham believes it will require more than just the efforts of the industry but also the government. He highlighted the UK as an example, where authorities have launched an initiative to encourage individuals to move cash in low-interest accounts into investments with attempts at achieving mass appeal through its mascot “Savvy Squirrel”.
“The reality is that if inflation’s running at 2%, 3%, 4%, and if your money’s in cash, you’re earning next to nothing. You are losing money every year,” he illustrated.
“There’s a big education piece that needs to start at the very top. Government campaigns would be fantastic, supported by the major industry players because what we know is that the more literate people are, the better decisions they’re going to make.”
Business growth in Asia and the Middle East
Globally, SJP has nearly one million clients with funds of over GBP216 billion. Outside of the UK, its international business covers Hong Kong and Singapore in Asia, and the UAE in the Middle East. According to Wickham, these markets saw assets grow significantly in the first half of 2026, though the firm does not disclose specific figures.
SJP continues to enhance its offering and earlier this month, it announced the expansion of its Flagship Portfolio Funds (FPF), a curated selection of strategies managed by global fund houses that are not typically be available to individual investors. The firm also enabled further access to its discretionary service and private client solutions via the Morningstar Wealth Platform.
