\n For independent wealth managers that deliberately resist being everything to every client, the competitive logic differs from that of larger institutions. At HP Wealth Management, that philosophy is built around wealth preservation, disciplined portfolio construction and measured growth rather than pursuing scale for its own sake.
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\nAt the Hubbis Investment Forum Singapore 2026, the opening panel explored how Asia’s leading wealth managers are seeking to differentiate themselves as competition for clients and talent continues to intensify. The discussion, chaired by Michael Stanhope, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Hubbis, brought together leaders from across the industry. Urs Brutsch, Managing Partner and Founder of HP Wealth Management, described a model built around wealth preservation, customised asset allocation, and deliberate restraint on growth, while explaining why he sees open architecture in custody as a meaningful distinction from private banks and how the firm is beginning to apply AI to both investment strategy and internal operations.\n <\/p>\n
Key Takeaways<\/p>\n
\n\tHP Wealth Management’s proposition is centred on wealth preservation, with Brutsch describing the firm’s approach as conservative and deliberately focused rather than broad.
\n\tStrategic asset allocation is customised for almost every client, implemented primarily through ETFs and passive instruments in a cost-efficient manner.
\n\tOpen architecture in custody is a distinct advantage of the independent model, allowing the firm to work across banks and asset managers to seek the best solution for each client.
\n\tGrowth is managed deliberately, with Brutsch stating that the firm is not pursuing scale for its own sake but is selective about clients, pace and pricing.
\n\tThe firm has launched an AI-powered global equity strategy and has begun exploring AI for internal efficiency, with early results described as encouraging.
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Wealth Preservation as the Starting Point<\/p>\n
Brutsch was direct about the firm’s positioning. “I always say, if you want to become rich, don’t come to us. If you want to stay rich, you come to us,” he said. The firm’s purpose, as he described it, is to ensure that a client’s wealth can sustain the same lifestyle across the current generation, the next generation and beyond.<\/p>\n
He noted that in most cases, the firm’s clients are better at making money than at managing the money they have made through their businesses. HP Wealth Management’s role is to fill that gap on a conservative basis. “We’re not trying to be everything to everyone all the time. We try to focus on what we think we do best, and that’s managing money on a conservative basis.” He added that the firm does not offer single products and that in his view, in this business, “boring is good.”<\/p>\n
Customised Allocation, Cost-Efficient Implementation<\/p>\n
On the practical side of the model, Brutsch explained that the firm customises strategic asset allocation for almost every client. He suggested that this level of customisation is easier for a smaller firm to achieve than it would be within a larger organisation. Once the allocation is set, the firm implements it in a cost-efficient way, primarily through ETFs and passive instruments. The key, he said, is matching the strategic asset allocation and risk profile to the client’s appetite, at which point “usually he or she gets the outcome that he expects.”<\/p>\n
Open Architecture in Custody<\/p>\n
During a panel exchange about open architecture, Brutsch agreed with a fellow panellist’s point that most banks now operate genuinely open platforms in terms of product selection. But he drew a distinction between product-level open architecture and custody-level open architecture. As an independent firm, HP Wealth Management can work across any bank and any asset manager to seek what is, in his view, the best solution for a given client. “I think you cannot sell other bank services except for the funds made for asset management,” he said, describing this custody-level flexibility as a meaningful difference between the independent and private banking models.<\/p>\n
On the broader question of alignment, Brutsch drew on his own experience at banks earlier in his career. He acknowledged that it is difficult for a bank to be fully client-centric given the pressures of key performance indicators and shareholder expectations. He was careful to note that he was not passing judgement. “I’m not judging. It’s a fact. It is what it is,” he said, adding that the advantage of being a small independent firm is the absence of those particular pressures.<\/p>\n
Deliberate Growth<\/p>\n
Asked about the challenges that come with rapid growth in the industry, Brutsch made clear that HP Wealth Management is not pursuing scale aggressively. “We’re not aiming for the sky,” he said. “We are growing at the right pace and at the right price with the right people and the right clients.”<\/p>\n
He acknowledged that the firm’s model is not suited to every client and that there are inherent limitations on how quickly it can grow. But he framed that as a feature rather than a constraint. “We just don’t want to grow for the sake of the growth. It has to be the right clients, profitable clients that we can offer something that they believe in our business model.” For clients who understand and value the independent model, growth follows naturally.<\/p>\n
Next-Generation Clients Want Preservation Too<\/p>\n
On the topic of next-generation wealth, Brutsch pushed back against the assumption that younger clients have fundamentally different priorities from their parents. He offered an anecdotal example: a client who sold his company and asked the firm to meet his children, who are in their early thirties, separately. “It turns out their risk profile is almost the same as the father\u2019s,” Brutsch said. Brutsch said the children had a risk profile very similar to their father’s and did not want to be heavily involved in managing the money themselves. He cited crypto as one area of difference, while stressing that it was not a conviction position.<\/p>\n
Brutsch accepted that some next-generation clients may look at their money differently or show greater interest in philanthropy, but he did not see a wholesale shift in priorities. “I don’t think it’s total 100 per cent shift for what next gen really wants,” he said. “They still want to preserve the wealth first and foremost.”<\/p>\n
AI: From Investment Strategy to Internal Operations<\/p>\n
Asked to identify the most significant recent initiative, Brutsch pointed to two developments. The first is an AI-powered global equity strategy launched almost two years ago. He said the strategy has outperformed the MSCI All-Country World Index by three percentage points per year over an approximately 18-month period.<\/p>\n
The second is a more recent effort to explore AI for internal efficiency. Working with a third-party provider, the firm has begun looking at how staff can create AI agents to improve operations. Brutsch described himself as generally comfortable being behind the curve on technology adoption, but said the early results have been encouraging. “I must admit that early results are quite important. What can be done? It’s very early for us, but in this case, I think it’s very encouraging to see the first output.”<\/p>\n
On the broader outlook, Brutsch identified AI as the industry’s biggest challenge, while pointing to continued wealth creation in Asia as a major opportunity. He nevertheless expects AI to improve efficiency, even if he does not believe it will replace the human interaction at the centre of wealth management.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For independent wealth managers that deliberately resist being everything to every client, the competitive logic differs from that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":795767,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[142044,142048,142056,142052,142043,142047,142055,142051,142045,142049,142057,142053,142042,142046,142054,142050,84,11912,4176,4174,4175,438,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-795766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-asia-private-banking","tag-asia-private-banking-news","tag-asia-private-banking-online-training","tag-asia-private-banking-training","tag-asia-wealth-management","tag-asia-wealth-management-news","tag-asia-wealth-management-online-training","tag-asia-wealth-management-training","tag-asian-private-banking","tag-asian-private-banking-news","tag-asian-private-banking-online-training","tag-asian-private-banking-training","tag-asian-wealth-management","tag-asian-wealth-management-news","tag-asian-wealth-management-online-training","tag-asian-wealth-management-training","tag-business","tag-e-learning","tag-finance","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance","tag-training","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/795766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=795766"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/795766\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/795767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=795766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=795766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=795766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}