^Yep, it all varies greatly. Really it depends on whether the company wants you to be actual portfolio and asset manager or a strategy implementer (i.e. busy work). Luckily my company belongs to the former group, but many out there do not.
Mostly asset allocation… keep in mind that in pwm there is more pressure not to eff up. pwm is more about preserving wealth and taking the slow and steady approach as opposed to creating alot of wealth. Also, can add significant value with estate planning too. In the HNW area you can do some cool stuff… but still more asset allocation…
I do not see what the issue is even if someone is regurgitating the recommendations of the research team. Why does the guy need to do a ton of more analysis on well researched ideas by people who are experts in the field already? Where the person is adding value is allocating their clients needs accordingly to those recommendations. He is making sure the client takes action to achieve their goals and needs, why must he create his own tools to do that, when he already is supplied with a perfectly fine toolkit? I bet most of his clients would have no idea how to allocate their wealth properly even if the CIO came and dumped all his research and picks on their lap.
I haven’t read the 2nd page. I am going into this kind of role as a “portfolio analyst” the good thing about my shop is that we have great (and I mean great) research. Who on AF is in WM? Adavy? anyone else that I haven’t been emailing with already? I’d love to have your email on hand in case I have a noob question.
adavydov @ gmail dot com, feel free to hit me up as you get up to speed (for me this had more to do with learning our systems though, so could be quite company specific)
depends on the firm and what is considered wealth management. I worked in a firm that WM meant 500 million to 50 billion. Most of the clients were not people but families.
I believe analytical depth of client facing roles really depends on the size and average client assets of the firm. Larger firms may have a WM organization that splits roles into relationship management (client facing), investment advisor (make sense of data for the RM), investment analyst (prep data for IA) and many more specialists that support the RM (taxes, legal, relocation, schooling, M&A, etc.). In contrast, I have heard of firms where the client facing role goes on to structure a custom derivative on his own, up to and including trading it. That may be the case for smaller WM. In the latter case you are likely to work more rigorously and may be required to defend your opinion in detail. In a larger firm, once a RM is asked to defend an opinion, he rings up the investment advisor to do the arguing. That gentleman you described may have actively chosen to not go into further detail for a variety of valid reasons (i.e. lack of time, not relevant to topic, etc.). However, I see your point. I do not like unsubstantiated claims either. In part, thats why I have such issues with MBAs. Most MBAs I have met behave in exactly the same way you described and I often struggle taking their statements seriously.