January 2, 2024 • Russ Alan Prince
Jeff Shipley is a founder, partner and consultant with Lumina Consulting, the team behind the successful launches of Private Wealth Asset Management and Fidelis Capital in 2021. Lumina aims to help create a superior client experience and deliver on the promise that private banking once made.
Russ Alan Prince: Lumina Consulting has identified a trend within the private banking industry where increasing numbers of private bankers are leaving private banking institutions in favor of independence. Can you explain the factors that are contributing to this trend and what it means for the UHNW consumer?
Jeff Shipley: For generations, private banks were the place where the consumer turned for a better client experience and access to the top professionals a bank had to offer in order to help them manage the financial complexity in their personal and business lives, often through multiple generations. Today there is a change. Private banks are moving towards a service and structure that more resembles big Wall Street brokerage firms than the promise once provided by private banks. What does this mean? It means change! Change to how clients are taken care of, for example.
In the old world of private banks, a team of advisors would take care of the UHNW family. Each team member would know that family well because they work with a limited clientele by design, whether they are the estate planning specialist, the trust officer, the investment specialist, etc.
