This publication is holding the inaugural Switzerland and Liechtenstein Awards for outstanding performance, both at the institutional and individual level, in wealth management. (To view the full details of these awards, please see here.) A crucial part of the process is having a panel of judges with the experience and knowledge to assess the entries.

Here is Dr Gabriela Maria Payer, who is head of education at the Swiss Finance Institute. (She was recently interviewed about this organisation here.) She has almost three decades of experience in multiple business development and transformation engagements plus board mandates, with most of her career spent in the financial services sector. She established her own consulting boutique, PayerPartner, in 2012 and joined the Swiss Finance Institute, a private foundation created by Switzerland's banking and finance community in cooperation with leading Swiss universities, as head of education and member of its management board in the same year.

Her views on the Swiss and Liechtenstein wealth management sectors:

“The Swiss/Liechtenstein wealth management industry is going through not only very challenging changes on the regulatory side, but needs as well to look into innovative business models.”

“With the award candidates we hope to discover not only excellent institutions, but as well promising offerings and technological solutions for the wealth sector. I’m personally very keen on seeing not only best practices, but also potential next practices.

“If the awards can contribute to the progress of the wealth management industry even with small steps, this would be a great achievement. For the Swiss Finance Institute we then would be pleased to embed some of the findings in our educational programmes.”