On Thursday 9th May 2019, swisspartners Marcuard Heritage AG (SPMH) sponsored an event of the Private Client Dining Club (PCD). The PCD events provide a high-quality networking platform for advisers to global international private clients. What started with London and Swiss based events has even spread globally as far as Asia and Africa.
The company also organises female-only events under the banner “PCD Ladies”. SPMH co-sponsored and brought the PCD Ladies concept to Zurich for the first time. The event was very well received, with 60 attendees, drawn from the finance, legal and trust sectors.
Personally, I am a fan of networking events in general, but sometimes there can be an under-representation of women in our industry, so I believe that female-only events help to address the imbalance, as well as providing a support network and mentoring for the younger generation.
The choice of venue was also important and thanks to a personal connection of one of the partners at swisspartners, we were able to secure the venue of the Häusler Contemporary Gallery which provided a perfect backdrop for the event.
The exhibition “Beyond Beauty” was by the American artist, Judy Ledgerwood and attendees had the opportunity to view her paintings and ceramics and to listen to a talk on the exhibition during the evening.
The theme of art and art services resonates strongly with the swisspartners group, where we can assist clients wishing to hold art in suitable vehicles.
The swisspartners group was represented in force at the PCD Ladies event by some of the female partners of the group and new board member, Caroline Fiala (see photo).
The theme of “Women in Wealth” is of interest to the swisspartners group. As we are made aware from many sources, women generally outlive their spouses and are already or will be in sole charge of their finances during their lifetime. According to research from the Boston Consulting Group (Navigating the New Client Landscape: Global Wealth 2016, published by BCG June 2016), it is predicted that by 2020, women are expected to hold USD 72 trillion of the global wealth, with most of the transfer of wealth from one generation to the next likely to go to women.
This could potentially lead to a situation where nearly two thirds of the global wealth is held by women, so it will be important for female clients to be able to choose between male or female advisers for their wealth planning and management needs. Given that we have many female partners within our group, we can already give female clients this option.
It goes without saying that each client is different and female clients should not be treated as an homogeneous group and time should be taken to develop a long-term relationship which is based on trust and each client’s needs and situation should be reviewed on an ongoing basis.
We will be organizing more bespoke events related to women in wealth on a regular basis, so watch this space!
Caroline Bennett-Akkaya, Partner
Your Wealth at a Glance.