Many wealthy investors in the UK are not using their private banks for investment advice, instead they turn to stockbrokers and independent ...

Many wealthy investors in the UK are not using their private banks for investment advice, instead they turn to stockbrokers and independent financial advisers, according to research conducted by Tulip Financial, a London-based consultancy. The research found that 29 per cent of people surveyed (who had at least £250,000 {$478,141} in liquid assets) had an account with the private banking division of Barclays. Around 26 per cent had an account with Lloyds Private Banking and 21 per cent with Natwest Private Banking. HSBC Private Bank has around 9 per cent of the market. Tulip also found that around 41 per cent of wealthy investors also had an account with a specialist private bank such as C.Hoare & Co and Coutts. But the research firm found that many used their bank only for routine transactions rather than for investment advice. Tulip found that 78 per cent used their private bank for current account banking (check account), 22 per used it for investment advice and just 8 per cent used it for tax advice and trust management. “Britain's private banks have direct access to most of Britain's very wealthy investors,” said John Clemens, managing partner of Tulip. He added: “The surprise is that relatively few use their banks for investment purposes. There seems to be a lack of pro-active marketing by private banks of their investment skills.” Tulip believes private banks miss a potential £285 billion in private client money. The research found that 135,000 people in the UK could be classified as "ultra" high net worth individuals, with average liquid assets of about £3.87 million. A further 335,000 were high net worth individuals with an average of £432,000 in liquid assets. There are about 1.8 million mass affluent investors with an average of £94,000 in investible assets. The study also found that 54 per cent of ultra-high net worth investors used one or more private banks. However, 39 per cent of this category never used a private bank.