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How to choose the private bank best for your needs
Choosing your private bank is a strategic decision. Access to people with an attentive ear, who understand all your needs, and who can provide comprehensive and personalised management of your wealth are essential considerations, whether you are an entrepreneur, senior executive, or high-net-worth individual (HNWI).
A private bank must be able to ensure the long-term growth of its clients’ wealth while planning its transfer to future generations. These are crucial elements in the process of long-term wealth management.
When the time comes to choose the private bank best suited to your needs, it is vital to ensure it offers optimum management of your investments and appropriate tax planning, combined with effective structuring of assets across different jurisdictions. These key factors distinguish the best private banks from traditional banks.
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Lombard Odier: a private bank guiding its clients since 1796
Lombard Odier, an investment firm with a 230-year history, represents a benchmark for people who prefer the private bank option. The Firm offers a wide range of personalised private banking services for international clients – both private and institutional – who want to benefit from bespoke wealth management solutions designed for the long term.
A private bank must be able to ensure the long-term growth of its clients’ wealth while planning its transfer to future generations
Lombard Odier offers tailored management solutions through both discretionary management mandates and our investment advisory services, each of which is adapted to the client’s risk profile and their long-term objectives. The Firm also guides its clients in all their wealth planning while accounting for their tax environment, country of residence, and their personal and family situation.
To guide the development of a life project and protect wealth, a private bank must provide international structuring solutions and plan the transfer of assets to future generations. At Lombard Odier, these services are powered by our robust and stable Swiss private banking model and our network of over 25 international offices.
Moreover, thanks to our long-standing philanthropic tradition and in-house expertise in this area, we help our clients define gift-giving and patronage strategies that match their values and aspirations. Through Fondation Philanthropia – our umbrella foundation dedicated to our clients’ projects – gifts of more than CHF 90 million have been made to over 400 organisations worldwide.1
Lombard Odier understands the importance of developing world-class secure banking systems, and we have been investing in our own IT platform for over 30 years. Deployed in every one of our offices, our platform allows us to offer a unique level of control and coherence – a feature our clients greatly appreciate, particularly those whose wealth is spread across several jurisdictions.
My LO, our unified and global client interface, is widely renowned and the frequent recipient of industry awards
My LO, our unified and global client interface, is widely renowned and the frequent recipient of industry awards. My LO provides our clients with an overall view of their investments and their performance, while also enabling them to interact with their relationship manager and access our financial research.
Made-to-measure wealth management: a key service provided by private banks
When starting any partnership, our specialists take the time to get to know the client and assess their situation – both personal and professional – as thoroughly as possible. This enables them to define a personalised wealth strategy that supports their unique needs and objectives.
Our clients – primarily entrepreneurs, heads of family firms, senior executives, and HNWIs – seek to establish an intergenerational approach to their wealth. We do this through rigorous succession planning that will enable the long-term transfer of our clients’ assets to their heirs.
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Lombard Odier’s clients also want to diversify their investments – an objective often linked to their international mobility – and optimise their tax situation. Our in-house specialists put interpersonal relationships at the heart of their approach, identifying the specific needs of each client to propose the most suitable wealth strategy.
Choosing the best private bank for you
When choosing a top-rated banking partner to manage your wealth, a combination of several essential criteria – such as financial and institutional strength and the independence of its capital – must occupy a central position in your thinking.
Lombard Odier’s financial indicators are outstanding, and you can rely on our strong capitalisation. Our balance sheet is highly liquid and conservatively invested. Our common equity tier 1 ratio (CET1) is one of the highest in the sector at 33%2 – more than double the regulatory requirement – and we have no external debt.
Being wholly owned by its Managing Partners – all of whom possess a strong entrepreneurial spirit – Lombard Odier benefits from total independence. This model allows us to benefit from stable and regular business growth
Being wholly owned by its Managing Partners – all of whom possess a strong entrepreneurial spirit – Lombard Odier benefits from total independence. This model allows us to benefit from stable and regular business growth while ensuring a prudent approach based on long-term transitions. All of this minimises risk and preserves our financial strength.
Overall wealth guidance
As a wealth manager, we provide overall guidance that goes beyond simple wealth management. It is essential to consider this wider guidance when choosing a private bank, including around multi-jurisdiction environments where there are complex and evolving tax and cross-border challenges. With each of our clients’ lives and careers often including a degree of mobility, wealth needs to be internationally structured to ensure assets are held in efficient and compliant ways across jurisdictions.
Our discretionary management solutions provide a variety of investment options, such as single-asset-class mandates, multi-asset strategies, and bespoke multicurrency solutions. Meanwhile, our advisory mandates allow each client to make their own final investment decisions
In addition, our discretionary management solutions provide a variety of investment options, such as single-asset-class mandates, multi-asset strategies, and bespoke multicurrency solutions. Meanwhile, our advisory mandates allow each client to make their own final investment decisions while benefiting from the recommendations of our investment experts.
Dedicated teams and a relationship based on trust
To be able to count on professionals within an international private bank, you need to develop a relationship of trust with your banker. Lombard Odier offers access to a wide range of dedicated professionals within our Firm who understand the personal situations of our clients and their needs, whether in terms of investment, tax, wealth and succession management, or international asset structuring.
Because our teams are stable, our clients can be sure their assets are held efficiently and compliantly in all jurisdictions while benefitting from long-term monitoring, providing continuity in the management of their wealth.
Sustainability at the heart of our business
Our long-term orientation is also reflected in our commitment to sustainable performance. Today, the global economy is undergoing a profound transformation, with real systemic changes redefining markets, value chains, and business activity. Powered by economic fundamentals, this evolution is creating a new net-zero economic model that is nature-positive, beneficial for society, and facilitated by the digital transformation.
Our Firm has distinguished itself by becoming the first global asset and wealth manager to become a Certified B Corporation®, one of the most rigorous corporate social responsibility certifications
The transformation is affecting all the systems that underpin our economy, from energy and industry to consumption, health, and technology. These system changes are addressing “pain points” that have become impossible to ignore, such as the climate crisis, the decline in biodiversity, and demographic pressures. And they are redefining business models and capital allocations. In our opinion, this phenomenon constitutes the greatest investment opportunity of our time. Lombard Odier fully integrates these system changes into its processes, so we can identify companies capable of prospering in tomorrow’s economy.
Our Firm has also distinguished itself by becoming the first global asset and wealth manager to become a Certified B Corporation®, one of the most rigorous corporate social responsibility certifications. Lombard Odier also recertified as a B Corp™ in 2023, improving its score in the process.3
Mistakes to avoid when choosing your private bank:
Focussing purely on short-term performance is a frequent mistake. Considering only immediate investment returns may distract from what is essential, since long-term growth remains the true gauge of stability, sustainability, and predictability.
Neglecting the institutional strength of the bank to which you entrust your wealth. Governance and financial robustness must be carefully assessed to ensure the long-term security and preservation of your assets. Moreover, choosing an institution purely based on social recommendations may prove simplistic. Above all, this decision must be based on experience, the quality of the relationships established with in-house specialists, and the degree of confidence felt on a personal level.
By the same token, underestimating the importance of transparency around fees may damage the quality and longevity of your relationship with your private bank. A clear understanding of costs helps establish a balanced partnership.
Finally, failing to ensure your interests and personal objectives align with the bank’s values may, in the end, damage the relationship. To develop a relationship of trust and generate sustainable performance, it is essential to move forward with a partner whose interests are truly aligned with your own.
In the end, your choice of private bank comes down to establishing a long-term strategic partnership. Growing your assets and passing them on to your heirs presupposes an intergenerational view of wealth management. It requires personal guidance from a stable and independent partner who can serve as a reliable support throughout this process.
A private bank is an institution specialised in managing the wealth of its clients – institutional or private – through tailored management of their investments and overall planning. A personalised advice model, based on a dedicated relationship and a thorough understanding of each person’s financial, tax, and succession needs, provides an approach that is integrated, transgenerational, and orientated towards the long term.
Key criteria include the institution’s financial strength, the quality of its wealth management guidance, and its ability to provide advice that is truly bespoke and aligned with the client’s objectives. The institution’s expertise in terms of asset management, tax, and succession planning, and transparency around fees, are also essential points for consideration, as are international presence and the stability of its teams.
A private bank offers a tailored approach that adapts to complex wealth situations and the requirements of each individual. Unlike traditional banks, a private bank will offer overall guidance covering investments, tax, international structuring, and wealth transfers. This model offers dedicated expertise and continuous monitoring, which are essential benefits in multi-jurisdiction contexts.
Private banks offer bespoke portfolio management, wealth planning, and succession solutions, as well as integrated tax advice. They also guide their clients in the structuring of international assets, access to private investments, and, if required, the implementation of philanthropic initiatives. World-class, secure digital services provide a consolidated view of a client’s wealth, as offered by Lombard Odier’s award-winning My LO platform.
Financial strength is measured using indicators such as capitalisation, balance sheet quality, capital ratios (in particular, CET1), and the level or absence of external debt. Stable governance and a model of independence also bolster the institution’s resilience. Together, strong positions in these areas indicate that the private bank is capable of protecting assets over the long term.
You can contact us by completing this form or any of the "let’s talk" or "get in touch" forms on our website, which allow our experts or a dedicated private banker to respond to your specific request. You may also call our local offices directly to speak with a seasoned professional about our personalised investment and wealth management solutions.
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