The CEO of the UK's Wealth Management Association recently gave an interview to this news organisation to coincide with the WMA's annual conference in the City.

Last week the UK’s Wealth Management Association held a conference in London which featured speakers including John Griffith-Jones, chairman of the Financial Conduct Authority; Baroness Sharon Bowles, non-executive director at the London Stock Exchange; Paul Killik, senior partner, Killik & Co; and British broadcaster and former UK government minister, Michael Portillo. WealthBriefing was honoured to be in partnership with the WMA event. 

Chris Hamblin, editor of Offshore Red and Compliance Matters – sister news services to WealthBriefing – interviewed Liz Field, chief executive of the WMA, a post she has held since last year. In the interview, she discussed a range of challenges and opportunities for the country’s wealth management sector.

You have a first degree and a Masters in Occupational Psychology (Birkbeck). Has this helped you in your meteoric rise to the top?
Yes, the degree really helped with that. You have to think about what makes people tick and what journey they've had today. Psychology is not "rats and stats" at all; I looked at the social side of things when I studied it. I did my degree at the Open University and it took me six years. I felt I was doing it in far more detail in that time than I would have done as a student at a conventional university. I was doing a job and raising a family at the same time.

You've been a CEO running skills trade associations in the financial services sector – is this the realm of “training and competence” by any chance?
It was, towards the end. As T&C started its journey, it was very much about “what is competence?” It's about skill and behaviour and how to set standards of behaviour. We (at the Financial Skills Partnership) took part in the negotiations with the regulator to evolve “level 4”. We decided, “let's start with the need for competence first and define it”. This wasn't the first time I came into contact with the WMA (then APCIMS); I came across it before that when I worked for Gerard Stockbrokers 10 years ago. I was also at the CISI. I was involved in setting the standards for level 4, but was also on the exam board for the CISI (Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment). I wouldn't say I was the spearhead for level 6 also but I tackled it knowing that it would only be a matter of time before the barometer would start to move up from level 4. The investment managers at our WMA member-firms are mainly level 6 now – that's the degree-level qualification. (The Chartered Financial Planner qualification that is part of the National Qualifications Framework at 'level 6' is equivalent to a bachelor’s [first] degree.) I couldn't possibly say how many years it takes to do level 6. They now have a postgraduate degree-level qualification and it's a fellowship at the CISI.

How Eurosceptic are your members?
We haven't asked them, to be honest. We're bound by the (EU) treaty and until that changes it is business as usual. One-third of my resources are taken up by Europe, because that's where the laws come from.

I hear the WMA is working with Donald Toon from the National Crime Agency, the Economic Crime Command and the NCA as a whole against cybercrime. How's that going? How many emergencies have you had to field since February, when you started doing it?
A few things are rumbling on. We've been looking at the guidance we've been offering to firms. We have an alert system that helps wealth managers keep up-to-date with the latest techniques. It has two angles – it helps staff in firms, and it looks at how firms educate their clients. Toon tells us the trends. We've set up a wealth management forum. We educate them about what wealth management entails just as much as vice versa. Criminals are more likely to target wealth management firms for personal details, while they're more likely to target banks for transactions.

Has the government ever told you why retail investors were excluded from participating in the Royal Mail share sell-off? Did you ask?
No, they didn't tell us but we did indeed ask. It's a bit of a bone of contention. Any IPO ought to have potential in the retail space. We liked it on 5 October when they promised retail investors to be involved in the Lloyds sale.

You have 110 full member firms. On your site it says “76 associate member firms provide professional services to our full-member firms.” What's going on there?
Some of the 76 are lawyers and accountants. There might be the odd IT provider. There are platform security firms such as Euroclear and Platform Securities.

Last week you and Sanlam Private Wealth had a debate around pension freedoms and their implications for wealth managers at a roundtable. What are your views and what were your conclusions?
It's a secret! It's just being written up. I have yet to see it for myself. My head of research will hand it to me.

High net worth clients are increasingly demanding more for their money. I'm always hearing this. How and why?
I don't see them demanding more, but at one firm (name withheld) there has been a survey of UHNW clients' attitudes. The early results show that the upper end are saying that it's a bit boring; the middle area are saying "we're happy with what you're doing”. The lower end (£13 million+ in investable assets) are saying "we'd like more personal contact, thank you very much”. There are no issues about "we want more from you”; they just want "more exciting”. I don't know what that means really!

I'm interested in that lower figure, on the lower end of UHNW, saying that they'd like more personal contact. They're going the other way! All these wealth management firms have been trying to get more “tech-savvy” and contact you on your iPhone all the time and give you whizzy electronic services and it sounds as though, for the bottom end, they're doing too much of it and ought to be going back the other way a bit.
We'll have to drill down a lot more and look at the segments. I don't think individuals just want to be online. Just because you're tech-savvy, it doesn't mean that you have all the answers. The Financial Advice Market Review, which the government began in the summer, is looking at the question of whether “online” is the answer.

Fiat currencies are going down the tubes. Is the WMA helping its members prepare for 'Moneygeddon', when hyperinflation kicks in?
We haven't looked at that!

Robo-advisors/platforms are moving into retirement planning, trusts and estate planning – it's not just simple investments any more. Charles Schwab, Vanguard and Fidelity are involved, I think. What are your worries for the industry there?
Well they can't be (and I don't think they are) complacent. Everybody's looking at their business model because of this.

Are any WMA organisational changes coming up?
No.

Lastly, the WMA represents wealth management firms from not only the UK but the Crown Dependencies and the Republic of Ireland. What exclusive concerns of those offshore centres is the WMA championing these days? What are their worries that the WMA is trying to resolve?
This has been a byway in the past, a neglected area. Up until now, the WMA hasn't spoken to the Jersey, Guernsey and Isle of Man regulators all that much. Our strategy now is that we are engaging with the regulators. “Gold plating” of regulations by the various regulators is an issue. We already do regional roadshows there.