Here is an updated list of various courses, mostly of postgraduate and MBA level, that are relevant to people pursuing or contemplating a career in wealth management.

Editor's note: As the academic year starts, and the summer holidays close, Family Wealth Report issues a list of graduate and postgraduate training courses in wealth management around the world. As ever, we invite readers to suggest updates where necessary, as we appreciate this list may be incomplete or in need of revision. To do so, email tom.burroughes@wealthbriefing.com or telephone +44 207 148 0178.

If wealth management is to grow successfully and maintain high standards of client service, firms that try to get by through poaching staff from rivals will find this ploy proves to be expensive if the talent pool does not expand with a strong graduate intake. Consequently, graduate and postgraduate training and development in the sector is a vital, long-term process. In terms of Master of Business Administration courses for postgraduates, for example, there are as yet relatively few courses available, but a longer list of other certification programs does exist.

Courses and institutions:

Wealth Management Institute. This organization is supported by Temasek Holdings, Singapore's sovereign wealth fund. The very fact that such an institution is investing in this area gives some sense of how seriously Singapore regards the sector as a growth area.

The institute has the following courses:

• WMI Continuing Professional Development series;
• WMI Master Class in Wealth Management;
• WMI Private banking wealth management program;
• WMI Advanced wealth management program – affluent;
• WMI Wealth management program – affluent;
• Master of Science in Wealth Management, described by the organization as a “flagship program”, developed in conjunction with Singapore Management University, Swiss Finance Institute and the Yale School of Management;
• WMI Advanced Certificate in Trust Services;
• WMI Certificate in Trust Services.

Temaswiss. A relative newcomer and based in Singapore, it provides training for private bankers and wealth managers. The model is based on an outreach programme of guest experts (not to be confused with its industry speakers), currently at 12. The programs cater for individual self-financed attendees but most of the courses are delivered as “smart-sourced” programmes for the financial institutions directly with their private banking units, risk functions or their HR learning academies. The average individual course cost is S$1,200 ($855) for a two-day, four-hour course.

Edinburgh Napier University, UK - MSc in Wealth Management.

Carnegie Mellon University, Tepper School of Business - Executive MBA in Asset and Wealth Management.

University of Lausanne, HEC Lausanne, Faculty of Business and Economics - Executive MBA in Asset and Wealth Management.

Singapore Management University, which operates an MSc in wealth management alongside the Swiss Finance Institute. In 2009, Yale University was added as an academic partner. (See WMI entry above.)

Wharton. The US business school, under the leadership of Professor Chris Geczy, has a “wealth management initiative”. Its wealth management courses fall mainly within the school’s executive education division; it does not have a stand-alone MBA for wealth management. Undergraduate and MBA students may take courses that include related issues.
Association of International Wealth Management. Set up in 2007 as a joint venture between LawInContext and AZEK, the body has created the Certified International Wealth Management Diploma.

UBS Business University Wealth Management Campus, Singapore. The organisation, run by the Swiss bank, adopts the Singapore Banking and Finance’s Financial Industry Competency Standards, established in 2005.

Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada - MBA In Global Asset and Wealth Management.

Manchester Metropolitan University Business School - MSc in Financial Planning and Wealth Management, .

CFA Institute, Charlottesville, VA (The Institute of Chartered Financial Analysts). It operates a CFA program that has been dubbed “the gold standard” by the Financial Times and “the global passport” by The Economist magazine. The CFA program addresses issues such as tax-efficient wealth accumulation, cross-border estate planning, client communication strategies and financial planning. 

BPP - CISI Masters in Wealth Management.

UBS and Standard Chartered Private Bank recently joined Jersey International Business School’s work support program for the BSc (Hons) International Financial Services degree. The program allows a number of students to study for the degree whilst being employed by one of the firms. HSBC and RBS International also offer paid student placements to the BSc students.

BNP Paribas operates an Asia-Pacific campus in Singapore, described as the French bank’s first training and talent development facility in the region. The firm will train 3,200 employees per annum from Singapore and some of its 75 countries worldwide, with a range of program specifically designed to cover eight paths: talent development; leadership and management; individual skills; risk and credit; compliance and regulatory; product and technical proficiencies; diversity and inclusion, and corporate culture and citizenship. The project is supported by the government of Singapore.