UHNW Banking Strategies: Focus on the Individual, Not the Asset Class

510,810. That’s the global UHNW population – individuals with a net worth over $30 million. Their assets define them as a class – but that’s where the similarities end and the real service starts. Every client wants their financial services provider – whether it’s a bank or an investment manager – to make them feel seen and unique.    

Your UHNW clients’ exceptional wealth demands hyper-personalized service to maintain and manage its complexities – not just for today but for its transfer tomorrow. The UHNW also represent “today and tomorrow” in their generational makeup and embrace of digital banking.  

Treating a wealthy person as not just a member of a monolithic asset class but as a person is what makes the difference in delivering an UHNW private banking experience that creates loyal, lifelong and intergenerational relationships. 

UHNW clients: where exceptional opportunity meets extraordinary expectations

The stakes are high for UHNW private banking, with the UHNW population predicted to grow to 587,650 and control $68.2 trillion by 2028. But who are the UHNW? What are their expectations for themselves and their wealth – and from you as their banking provider? 

Wealth by generation: and the coming great generational transfer

There are two inescapable human and financial realities: Everyone ages and builds and eventually passes along their assets. Baby Boomers currently sit atop the UHNW pyramid, with 44.5% of the wealth share. 

By 2040, they will be replaced by Gen X and Next Gen (Millennials and Gen Z), a closing second with 34.6%. That growth will be fueled both by professional and investment success and generational wealth transfer.

Private banking expectations

Private banking strategies need to be increasingly inclusive, serving every generation of clients – often many in the same household. And the understanding has to go deeper than financials. Staying in touch with their personal interests, values and aspirations that drive them can help you have more authentic conversations and relationships. 

Nowhere is that more crucial than establishing yourself as a trusted advisor with a family’s next generation. Cerulli Associates notes that $120 trillion in wealth will be passed down in the next 25+ years – but only 27% of heirs say they will keep their family’s existing advisors.  

Benefactors often don’t sufficiently engage with their heirs about their plans. That’s where you come in: You can help encourage and manage the wealth transfer dialogue, while building a strong relationship with the next generation. 

Holistically UHNW

UHNW clients increasingly want a more centralized, holistic approach to managing their wealth. It’s an old, but valid, sentiment: for them, their time is money they would prefer to spend on hobbies, interests, philanthropy, etc. 

Private banking expectations

When an UHNW prospect or client asks, “Where can I…?” a private bank has to be able to say, “Look no further.” To succeed, your bank needs to be the answer to all their banking, lending and wealth management questions. 

You should have products, services and professionals who can assist with business planning, legacy and estate planning, philanthropic giving – and even large-value luxury and property purchases.  

Digital demands: white-glove expectations

Banking may be evolving from a physical handshake to digital e-signing but UHNW clients still demand a personalized approach to relationship management. When it comes to the most important financial talks and decisions, phone calls and face-to-face meetings won’t be going away any time soon. But UHNW clients are demanding the same high-touch experience from their online interactions and experiences. 

And it’s not just the humans with whom they’re interacting: UHNW clients expect a white-glove digital experience in terms of tools and services. This is especially true of Next Gen UHNW individuals, who either grew up in or were born into a digital-first environment. Their e-expectations are greater than their predecessors.

Private banking expectations

Private banking relationships will always be built on trust and emotional connection. In the digital era, trust goes beyond the human element to how well your technology works and if it’s addressing your UHNW clients’ needs – and the Next Gen digital use and expectation statistics tell the story.  

Your mobile apps and online platforms should be a single-source for UHNW client wealth aggregation and management – powerful, sophisticated, and fast – that can include: 

• Investment analysis tools that allow clients to study all of their assets in real time 
• Customizable account dashboards that let clients view their finances how they choose 
• Personalized reporting and document management that save clients time by putting their information at their fingertips

Even more, the online experience needs to be wholly integrated with the real world. It should make your UHNW client feel like it was all designed solely for them. A personal and organic part of their relationship management experience – an extension of their human manager, not a faceless program. 

Most importantly, your online UHNW client banking world should make them feel safe, special and catered – as if they were sitting with a person in an office or their home.  

How data drives UHNW private banking strategies

The average UHNW individual directly knows at least 70 other UHNW individuals, as well as many others with lesser, but still substantial, wealth. Those are 70+ potential warm introductions to people with their own connections your one satisfied UHNW client can make. 

When you realize that’s only .014% of the entire 510,810 UHNW population, you see both your enormous business opportunity and client acquisition challenges. You can meet both head on with a hybrid model of human, high-touch interaction and technological data analysis.  

The new human-technology prospect journey paradigm 

In the past, you may have used branch-based outreach, referrals and product-driven campaigns to prospect those individuals. Technology changed that. While the personal aspects of prospect nurturing and client relationship management are still critical to the journey, industry surveys show that more than 70% of banking customers expect a fully digital onboarding – often before they even interact with a representative. This new hybrid model of human touch and technological expectation means banks are under greater internal pressure to collect meaningful data and relationship insights and use them to create value-added interactions that build trust and credibility. 

Real-world data powers lead profiles

Seeing UHNW clients as individuals is the cornerstone of your client acquisition strategy. Prospect personas and profiles are at their best when they’re based on specific human-verified data, not broad-brush demographics. More critically, it ensures the integrity of the data you use to make your prospecting profiles and decisions. Algorithm-driven research can often litter your data with duplicates, errors and outdated information that weakens the data’s value and perception – and wastes time and weakens your brand reputation. 

You need profiles that let you see a full personal and professional picture – career history, philanthropy, personal interests – that leads to better segmenting and prospect prioritizing. Even more importantly, it lets you have deeper, more meaningful conversations that show you’ve taken the time to know who they are and understand them as individuals. 

Relationship intelligence shows your interpersonal IQ

That understanding is critical when tapping into personal networks. Those 70+ UHNW individuals are more likely to talk to – and ultimately work with – you when their introduction is warm and immediate. Relationship mapping lets you see the interconnections of prospects to existing clients, executives and board members, and which paths to take for high-quality greetings that accelerate growth. And, again, ensuring this data is human-driven and verified can enhance a prospect’s trust in that first interaction.

Deepen your relationships with data enrichment

Turning a prospect into a client doesn’t decrease the need for quality information – it increases it. You need to constantly maintain your client relevance to keep the relationship relevant and opportunities for future prospecting alive – and you can only succeed with fresh, accurate data. 

You may be confident in your database’s depth and breadth – but it will still lose value over time if left to go stale. The rate at which prospect and client data decays is eye opening: Industry research shows annual decay rates ranging from 30% to as high as 70%, depending on the segment. 

Keeping current with your CRM data enrichment ensures you have the most updated client profiles and verified information. Doing so not only improves the effectiveness of marketing and sales campaigns but gives relationship managers the context they need to deliver meaningful, timely interactions at every stage of the prospect and client journey. 

You can learn more about lead generation for banks here.  

Take an individualized approach to the UHNW client journey

Every UHNW prospect is a unique opportunity for growth and profitability. The secret isn’t in trying to prospect them as a class but using human insight and technology to learn about, understand and treat them as individuals. Uncovering what makes them tick can make them more likely to talk – and become your next pathway to even more high-quality prospects and clients.  

Talk with our experts to learn how you can take your lead generations strategies to the next level.