The value conferred by an EAM lies in the provision of an ecosystem that can reach beyond what would normally be possible with a single wealth manager. By partnering with specialist third-parties, the EAM can offer a whole of market view with the right contacts in the right places at the right time. It is much more of a multi-family office (MFO) type proposition, where the EAM is able to go and source exactly what the client needs to make an offering that fits the client and not the other way around.

However, this works only if the EAM is truly independent and able to leverage preferential treatment for its customers. The range of relationships also has to be broad enough to allow the EAM to offer a whole gamut of activities, be that investment, structuring, lending, succession planning, taxation or anything else.

Indeed, the model for EAMs is very well developed in some areas, notably Switzerland, and as it delivers on personalised service, it is gaining traction elsewhere in the world too. The wealthy are tired of standard service propositions that do not really take individual needs into account. This is due to the model based on cost to serve, which is higher when the bank is dealing directly with a series of individuals. But with the EAM model, the EAM is doing all the administrative work plus the client engagement and servicing. This reduces the cost to serve for the private bank or asset manager, lowering the access point, which could come down to the US$2 million mark, as compared to a standard rate of US$5 million upwards.

Deep relationship
Being able to deliver a personalised service in the first place relies on having a deep and trusted relationship with the client. This allows the firm to know and anticipate exactly what the client needs and wants, understand their preferences, and know where in their lifecycle they are. Knowing the client is what makes EAMs forward-thinking, always able to take the next best action and build on an ecosystem – reaching out to new partners – to respond to client need and demand.

We think this model is a bit of a no-brainer in terms of client satisfaction. It delivers what the client wants and needs, and the approach is all about the deep engagement between the adviser and the client. The adviser becomes the aggregator; they act as the glue that brings together all the various aspects and facets of the client’s affairs.

Technology
However, while we emphasise the importance of the human factor in the EAM model, we are not naïve enough to think that the adviser can do without the support and enablement provided by technology. Indeed, the importance of technology continues to grow, evidenced by the success and sustainability of tech-based banks and robo-advisers of various shapes and sizes.

But once the wealth levels start to grow, the value of the adviser, enabled by technology, becomes more apparent. For example, when markets are volatile and moving quickly, people will still want human communication and reassurance. The role of technology, in that instance, is to arm the adviser with the necessary information and data to provide that reassurance to the client. Here the role of the adviser is to steer the right course, and the technology serves as the means to set the course and communicate it effectively to the client.

Indeed, as a relatively new business, part of our longer-term vision is getting our technology set up optimised to make the service we provide the best it can be. Our first priority is to get our internal systems right so that we can provide our advisers with a dashboard-type set-up with aggregation capabilities, as opposed to having to access the feeds of third-parties one by one.

We think this will help in terms of operational and adviser efficiency. To that end, a robust and function-rich CRM is high on the priority list, too. This is something that would help not only with customers but also with business development, lead generation and other client management processes. We would also want the CRM to record pipeline business, tie in various data sources and have a decent database for targeted marketing campaigns. Not having this in place is holding us back from having better conversations with prospects and clients. A good CRM would supercharge our advisers!

Communication
When it comes to the adviser and the communications, we think the way forward will continue to be easy access over a variety of remote communications tools. We can also use these tools to deliver seminars, insights and other catch-ups delivered by ourselves and the ecosystem of partners that we work alongside.

Digital communication tools make it easy to check in with clients, and a technologically empowered adviser always has a relevant next-best-action.

As a relatively small firm, we rely largely on the adviser to know their clients, but having the right data and research at hand gives them the choice over what to provide, to whom and when. As we grow, there is an argument for automating this; it would certainly have a use case in targeted marketing, for example. However, knowing your client goes back to the personal touch: central to the EAM proposition.

Over the next few years, our priorities are going to be all about bedding down and building the right team, but we do recognise that technology is a fundamental part of that. We need to make sure we have the in-house tools to optimise our relationships with both third parties and clients.

In terms of how that will look, we will need to go out into a market that is currently very opaque, and that can seem overwhelming in places. Indeed, it is hard to know where to start, and the risk of investing lots of time and money into a system that does not deliver is huge. As a small business, we need to find partners that can work with us to deliver both core efficiency and the front-end service that clients want.

We are, however, hopeful. Dubai is a very technology-enabled place, and so the requirement is to keep up. However, it is also a very relationship-based part of the world, so ignoring that element is not a wise move. The face-to-face interaction is still so important, and really, we see this as a huge opportunity to explore what a decent hybrid service looks like and learn how we can apply that to our business. We must also remember that technology will never replace the adviser, but if the adviser is enabled, the better the service – which is what, as an EAM, we are selling.

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