This original research from the EDHEC Risk and Asset Management Research Centre's Noël Amenc, Lionel Martellini and Volker Ziemann shows that current practice in wealth management does not genuinely take clients' constraints and objectives into account. Specifically, private bankers know their clients well but do not know how to use this knowledge in asset management.

The EDHEC study explains how some of the most sophisticated asset-liability techniques used in the context of institutional money management can satisfactorily be implemented in private wealth management. They provide ample evidence that asset-liability management is an essential improvement in private wealth management that allows private bankers to provide their clients with investment solutions and asset allocation advice that truly meet their needs.

The authors argue that it is not the performance of a particular fund nor that of a given asset class that will be the determining factor in the ability of private wealth management to meet investors' expectations. What will prove to be the decisive factor is the private wealth manager's ability to design an asset allocation solution that allows for the incorporation of an investor's specific constraints, objectives and horizon, and as a result that is a function of the kinds of particular risks to which the investor, as opposed to the market as a whole, is exposed.

Discussing this research with Lionel Martellini, Scientific Director of the EDHEC Risk and Asset Management Research Centre, at the EDHEC Asset Management Days will be Martin Dürr, Head of Investments and Finance, Harald Quandt Holding, Arun Ratra, CIO for Private Portfolios, Asset Management Division, Credit Suisse, Leo Schrutt, Head of Research, Julius Bär Private Banking and Yves Bonzon, Chief Investment Officer Private Banking, Pictet & Cie.