Fifth Third Bank picks Prima to help build new SMAs

Thomas Coyle

23 October 2006

But many banks have a way to go if they hope to compete as wealth managers. Fifth Third Bank has chosen Prima Capital to help conduct ongoing manager selection, research and due diligence for its new best-of-breed separately managed account (SMA) program.

"When our organization made the commitment to expand our wealth-management capabilities, we identified Prima Capital early on due to providing a quality wealth-management experience and a high level of client service fits well with Prima's core competencies and values," says Prima's Watson.

Generally speaking

Al Chiaradonna, head of strategy for SEI 's private banking and trust group, says that banks are unusually well positioned to fulfill unmet needs for wealthy clients because they often have pre-existing relationships with these customers as a provider of commercial banking or basic depository services. But fulfilling this potential calls for a significant transformation of today's banking model -- one that goes beyond instituting open-architecture investment platforms.

"Banks are losing some customers due to a lack of differentiation," Chiaradonna told attendees of a wealth-industry conference in Chicago earlier this month. But some clients are staying put "because they don't see an alternative that offers them the complete package: a single trusted advisor at one institution who enables them to use their wealth to reach their life goals."

But to turn their positive standing in the community into wealth-management clout, banks will have to start delivering "differentiated client experience and relationship process, rather than people and products" and to provide advisory services based on a comprehensive assessment of a client's needs and goals, adds Chiaradonna. And to make that "a scalable, consistent client process" rather than a matter of depending on a charismatic staffer or two, banks need standardized approaches to identifying and developing relationship managers.

"Without a repeatable process to find and train capable relationship managers, there is no way to ensure a consistent service experience," Chiaradonna said in his conference presentation.

Oaks, Pa.-based SEI provides investment-platform and processing provider to financial-service companies. -FWR