A Study on Profit Maximization

A STUDY ON WEALTH MANAGEMENT

A MINI PROJECT REPORT

Submitted to the

SRM SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT

MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

By

RAJEEV RANJAN (Reg no:35080449)

RAKESH RANJAN (Reg no:35080461)

RANDEEP KUMAR (Reg no:35080472)

APRIL– 2009

DECLERATION

Certified that this mini project report title STUDY ON PROFIT MAXIMIZATION

Is an original work done by?

RAJEEV RANJAN (Reg no:35080449)

RAKESH RANJAN (Reg no:35080472)

RANDEEP KUMAR (Reg no:3508082)

Of 1nd semester, SRM School Of Management, SRM

Institute of science and technology, Kattankulathur during

The academic year 2009, who carried out the research under my supervision? Certified

further, that to the best of my knowledge the work reported here in does not form part of any

other project report or dissertation on the basis of which a degree or award was conferred on

an earlier occasion on this or any other certificate.

Mrs.SANGHA BHALI Dr.Jayashree Suresh Project Guide Head of the Department

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

We would like to express our deepest

gratitude and thanks to Dr.Jayashree Suresh, Head of the

Department for her valuable support in doing our project. She

has been a source of encouragement and guidance in all our

endeavors.

We express our profound thanks to Mrs.SANBHAGA

project guide, for his consistent encouragement and invaluable

suggestion in completing this project, without his, the

completion of this project would be practically impossible.

CONTENTS

Chapter Description 01 Introduction of the study

1.1 Introduction1.2 Profile of the company1.3 Objective of the study1.4 Scope of the study1.5 Limitation of the study

02 Research Methodology

2.1 Methodology of the study2.2 Period of the study 2.3 Source of data 2.4 Sample size2.5 Sampling method2.6 Tools used for analysis

03 Data analysis and interpretation 04 Suggestion and recommendation 05 Conclusion06 Bibliography

LIST OF TABLES

Table No. Name of the table01 Table showing age group of the respondents02 Table showings education levels of the respondents03 Table showings occupation levels of the respondents04 Table showings monthly income of the respondents05 Table showing purchase period of Colgate products06 Table showings reasons for preferring Colgate07 Table showings influences of Colgate product08 Table showings mode of purchase09 Table showings satisfaction level of the various

features of Colgate products

List of figuresFigure No. Name of figure

01 Chart showing age group of the respondents02 Chart showings education levels of the respondents03 Chart showings occupation levels of the respondents

04 Chart showings monthly income of the respondents05 Chart showing purchase period of Colgate products06 Chart showings reasons for preferring Colgate07 Chart showings influences of Colgate product08 Chart showings mode of purchase09 Chart showings satisfaction level of the various

features of Colgate products

ABSTRACT

This project is mainly aimed to study the consumer opinion about Colgate toothpaste portal in the Chennai region.

The primary objective is to known the operation and product awareness in sift and the secondary objective is to find out consumer opinion and their satisfaction level in market portal.

The survey was conducted to the consumers who are ready to supply their product and providing services to the corporate companies. Descriptive research with probability

random sampling technique was used to collect the data. The data obtained are then analyzed and interpreted.

INTRODUCTION:

Wealth management services area in financial sector has been witnessing more attention during lastcouple of years. Capgemini Merrill Lynch Wealth Report 2007 cites number of HNWIs globally to bearound 9.5 million with wealth held by them totaling to US$37.2 trillion in year 2006. Value of wealth heldby HNWIs represents an increase of around 11.4% since 2005.Considering long-term high value business proposition, number of banks and niche players hasstarted offering full range of wealth management services targeted to HNWIs and emerging affluents.While growing volume of premium services to affluent clients becomes the key driver for most of theservice provider firms, many unique elements inherent to wealth management services requirescompletely different service offering model than the existing model for transactional services. Greatly

accustomed in offering commoditized financial services so far, demand of unconventional form of servicemodel poses a big challenge in charting growth path for these wealth management firms.

Key Elements of Wealth Management Services

Wealth management services involve fiduciary responsibilities in providing professional investment adviceand investment management services to a client. Depending on the mandate of the services given to theWealth Manager, wealth management services could be packaged at various levels:

a) Advisory

b) Investment Processing (transaction oriented)

c) Custody, Safekeeping and Asset Servicing

d) End-to-end Investment Lifecycle ManagementWealth management services comprises of following key function areas of:

(a) Financial Planning,

(b) Portfolio Strategy Definition/ Asset Allocation / Strategy Implementation, (c) Portfolio Management – Administration, Performance Evaluation and Analytics, and

(d) Strategy Review and Modification.

Key Challenge Areas

Wealth management firms face many challenges in formulating winning services offering meeting theclient needs. Some of key challenges faced by wealth management firms are:

1.Highly Personalized and Customized Services

2. Personal relationship driving the business

3. Evolving Client Profile

4. Client Involvement Level

5. Passion Investment (Philanthropy and Social Responsibility)

6. Limited Leveraging Capabilities of Technology (as an enabler)

7. Technical Architecture and Technology Investment

8. Intricate Knowledge of Cross-functional Domain

Wealth Management Services – Challenges and Solution Framework

A HNWI client expects exclusiveness in services and key to success for a firm lies in offeringexclusiveness in services delivery (high quality services on most personalized basis), going beyondclient expectations.A solution framework with considered inclusion of following key elements would help firms in meetingand exceeding client needs towards sustainable business growth:

1. Quality of Service Level: Highly focused around client needs, a broad framework of servicoffering would be revolving around: Anticipate, Analyze, Advice, Act and Monitor cycle.

2. Universal Service Offering

3. Investment in People Processes

4. Price not a True Differentiator

5. Unconventional Delivery Channel and Communication

6. Flexibility of Technical Architecture: Against the background of lack of clarity on businessmodel and involved process, A loosely oriented technical architecture with optionality andmix of Build – Buy – Integrate components would be considered as a good beginning point.

To meet the information technology requirements, a firm has several alternatives (orcombination of alternatives) to consider:

- Integrated solution approach: Developing in-house applications to meet end-to-end newbusiness requirements.

- Service Bureau /ASP Model: Information technology service providers offeringintegrated end-to-end processing infrastructure and services including core of businessprocesses of wealth management.

- Stand-alone commercial software product/solutions: Pre-packaged solutions that canbe focused to specific part of services or provide comprehensive end-to-endprocessing.To provide enough resilience and high business relevance, any of the considered optionand associated technical structure should keep due provisions for the following keyelements:

- Rule based processing to manage complex business rules and service definitions.

- Client profile / data management to cater a profile driven solution offering.

- Complex decision support and client oriented analytics.

- Flexibility to incorporate manual processing interfaces in applications.

Wealth Management – An Emerging Sector

Wealth management services area in financial sector, hitherto used to be the preserve of some topmultinational banks and financial firms- offering exclusive services to a select few, has beenwitnessing more attention during last couple of years.A booming economy, rising stock prices and an increase in income and spending power have brought


sharp focus on this sector. With an increasing population of High Net worth Individuals (HNWIs)1, theunsaid tagline of earlier days - "Don't call us. We'll call you (if you are that wealthy!)” seems to becompleted altered in recent times. Considering long-term high value business proposition, number ofbanks, financial firms and niche players has started offering full range of wealth management servicestargeted to HNWIs and emerging affluents.As per recently published Capgemini Merrill Lynch Wealth Report 2007, number of HNWIs around theworld and value of their assets has been continuously rising. Number of HNWIs globally is estimated to bearound 9.5 million in year 2006, an increase of over 8.35% over previous year. HNWI wealth totalsUS$37.2 trillion, representing an increase of around 11.4% since 2005.As per report, number of HNWIs in India is increasingly growing – at a rate higher than other region ofworld. Number of HNWIs in India is estimated to be around 100,000 in year 2006 - an increase of over20.5% over previous year. Though, in absolute terms the above number appears pretty miniscule (if wecompare that with the number of retail investors in India2), however, in terms of value it really makes areally huge sum of serviceable investment3.While growing volume of premium services to affluent clients becomes the key driver for most of theservice provider firms, many unique elements inherent to wealth management services requires completelydifferent service offering model than the existing model for transactional services. To meet the clientservice expectations accurately, servicing model and framework has to be deeply oriented with high levelof client satisfaction. It is not a surprise that many of successful firms in wealth management sector drawlessons from successful service leaders from hospitality, entertainment and retailing industries, to learn thetrick of enhanced client satisfaction.Greatly accustomed in offering commoditized financial services so far, demand of unconventional form ofservice model poses a big challenge in charting growth path for these wealth management firms.

Before discussing about the challenges and possible solution approach in detail, we would first take acomprehensive view on the key elements of the wealth management services.

Core Elements of Wealth Management Services

In most basic sense, wealth management services involve fiduciary responsibilities in providingprofessional investment advice and investment management services to Institutions, funds(Pension/mutual/Hedge), corporations, trusts as well as HNWIs. In the present context of our discussion,we would keep our focus limited to HNWIs.1 There is no accurate definition of level of wealth to be considered into category of High Net worth Individuals (HNWI).The most commonly quoted figure for an individual to be considered high net worth is $1 million in liquid financial assets. Aninvestor with less than $1 million but more than $100,000 is considered to be "affluent". The upper end of HNWI is around $5million, at which point the client is then referred to as "very HNWI". More than $50 million in wealth classifies a person as "ultraHNWI".2 Though, no authentic figure on population of retail investors is currently available. It was accounted that UTI’s flagship scheme US-64 had morethan 20 million investors.Further, as per figure quoted in Economic Survey of India (2005-2006), number of depository accounts in NSDL and CDSL together was 8.5million in 2005.3 Considering wealth of around 9.5 million HNIs globally sums up to US$ 37.2 trillion, an average HNWI would be possessing wealth of aroundUS$ 3.91 million. Taking this average figure in context of HNWIs in India, wealth of HNWIs in India works out to be an astronomical amount ofapproximately US$ 391.5 billion.

Wealth Management Services – Challenges and Solution FrameworkSome of analogous terms used for wealth management could be considered as Portfolio Management,Investment Management and many times Fund Management or Asset Management.Depending on the mandate of the services given to the Wealth Manager, wealth management servicescould be packaged at various levels:a) AdvisoryWealth manger’s role is limited to the extent of providing guidance on investment / financial planningand tax advisory, based on client profile. Investment decisions are solely taken by the client, as per his/her own judgment.b) Investment Processing (transaction oriented)Client engages wealth manager to execute specific transaction or set of transactions. Investmentplanning, decision and further management remain vested with the client.c) Custody, Safekeeping and Asset ServicingClient is responsible for investment planning, decision and execution. Wealth manager is entrustedwith management, administration and oversight of investment process.d) End-to-end Investment Lifecycle ManagementWealth manager owns the whole gamut of investment planning, decision, execution and management,on behalf of the client. He is mandated to make financial planning, implement investment decisionsand manage the investment throughout its life.Wealth management services comprises of following key function areas:

a) Financial Planning

b) Portfolio Strategy Definition/ Asset Allocation / Strategy Implementation

c) Portfolio Management – Administration, Performance Evaluation and Analytics

d) Strategy Review and ModificationDetail description on each of these areas has been presented in the succeeding paragraphs.

Financial Planning

Client ProfilingClient profiling takes in account multitude of behavioural, demographic and investment characteristicsof a client that would determine each client’s wealth management requirements. Some of keycharacteristics to be evaluated for defining client’s investment objective are:

- Current and future Income level

- Family and life events

- Risk appetite / tolerance

- Taxability status

- Investment horizon

- Asset Preference /restriction

- Cash flow expectations

- Religious belief (non investment in sin sector like - alcohol, tobacco, gambling firms, orcompliant with Sharia laws)

- Behavioural History (Pattern of past investment decisions)

- Level of client’s engagement in investment management (active / passive)

- Present investment holding and asset mix

Investment Objective

Based on the client profile, investment expectations and financial goals of the client could beclearly outlined. Defining investment objectives helps to identify investment options to beconsidered for evaluation. Investment objective for most of the investors could be generally

considered amongst the following:


- Current Income

- Growth (Capital Appreciation)

- Tax Efficiency (Tax Harvesting)

- Capital Preservation (often preferred by elderly people to make sure they don’t outlive theirmoney.)

Portfolio Strategy Definition / Asset AllocationDefining Portfolio Strategies and Portfolio Modeling

After establishing investment objectives, a broad framework for harnessing possible investmentopportunities is formulated. This framework would factor for risk-return trade-off of consideredoptions, investment horizon and provide a clear blueprint for investment direction.Investment strategy helps in forming broad level envisioning of asset class (Securities, Forex,Commodity, Real State, Reference and Indices, Art/Antique and Lifestyle Assets (Car, Boat,Aircraft)), market, geography, sector and industry. Each of these asset classes is to becomprehensively evaluated for inclusion in portfolio model, in view of defined investmentobjectives.While defining the strategy, consideration of client preference or avoidance for specific asset

class, risk tolerance, religious beliefs is the key element, which would come into picture. Thus,for a client with a belief of avoidance of investment in sin industries (alcohol, tobacco, gamblingetc.) is to be duly taken care of. Likewise, for a client looking for Sharia- compliant investment,strategy formulation should consider investment options meeting with the client expectations.

Determination of Portfolio Constituents and Allocation of Assets

Guided with the investment strategy, constituents in portfolio model are determined, which woulddirectly and efficiently contribute towards client’s investment objectives. Thus, a broad levelinvestment guidance of – “investment in fixed income in emerging market” would furtherdetermine classification within Fixed Income such as Govt. or corporate bonds, fixed or variablerate bonds, Long or short maturity bonds, Deep discounted or Par bonds, Asset backed or otherdebt variants.Return profile, risk sensitivity and co-relation of constituents within portfolio model would help todetermine the size (weightage) of each individual constituent in the portfolio.

Strategy Implementation

Having decided the portfolio constituents and its composition, transactions to acquire specificinstruments and identified asset class is initiated. As acquisition cost would be having bearing onoverall performance of the portfolio, many times process of asset acquisition may be spreadover a period of time to take care of market movement and acquire the asset at favourable pricerange.

Portfolio ManagementPortfolio Administration

Portfolio Administration involves handling of investment processes and asset servicing. Thiswould also require tax management, portfolio accounting, fee administration, client reporting,document management and general administration relating with portfolio and client.This function would involve back office administration and custodial services to managetransaction processes (trading and settlement) - interfacing with brokers/dealers/agents, Fundmanagers, Custodians, Cash Agent and many other market intermediaries.

Performance Evaluation and AnalyticsPerformance evaluation of the portfolio is an ongoing process. Portfolio return is continuouslymonitored and analyzed with respect to defined portfolio objectives. Analysis dimension could bevaried – simple and complex. These may include - absolute return, relative return (in comparisonto chosen benchmark), trend, pattern, cost impact, tax impact, concentration, lost opportunityand other form of sensitivity and what-if analysis.Any deviation of portfolio performance observed during performance evaluation would lead tostrategy review and any possible alignment of portfolio strategy.

Strategy Review and AlignmentRecalibration of Portfolio Strategy

Based on performance evaluation and future outlook of the investment, portfolio strategy isevaluated on periodic basis. To keep it aligned with the defined investment objectives, portfoliostrategy is suitably re-calibrated from time to time. Many times, review of portfolio strategy wouldbe necessitated due to change in client profile or expectations.

Rebalancing, Reallocation and Divestment of AssetsAny re-calibration of strategy and consequent change in portfolio model would requirerebalancing of the assets in portfolio. This would be achieved through rebalancing the asset

(divesting over-allocated part and acquiring under allocated), relocation (from one sector theother or from one instrument to other instrument in the same class) or complete divestment.

Key Challenge Areas:

While immense business potentiality of this emerging sector is a driving point for most of the firms,they face many challenges in formulating winning services offering meeting the client needs. In thefollowing section, we would briefly take a look on the key challenges area in the present context.

Highly Personalized and Customized Services

Unlike other stream of financial services, mostly being transactional /commoditized in nature, wealth


management services require client specific solution and service offering. No one solution exactly meetsthe needs of other client. In a situation of highly personalized and customized nature of service offering,developing any form of generic service model does not support growth of the business.

Personal relationship driving the business

To meet client expectation of personal attention, mode of communication in wealth managementservices tends to be highly personalized. Thus, the conventional grids of communication, such as callcentre, data centre does not fit well. Success of wealth management services heavily draws on personalinteraction with the dedicated relationship manager, who takes care of whole investment managementlifecycle for bunch of clients on one-to-one basis. This essentially requires service firm to invest heavilyin human processes to groom and retain a team on competent relationship managers with crossfunctional

skills.

Evolving Client ProfileThe biggest challenge in providing wealth management service offering is to factor and reckon theevolving nature of client profile, in terms of investment objective, time horizon, risk appetite and so on.Thus, a service model developed for a particular client cannot remain static over a period of time. Anyservice model has to be flexible enough to consider the dynamic nature of client profile and expectationsarising out of it.

Client Involvement Level

The conventional adage – the more money you have, more effort is needed to manage it – proves to beotherwise in case of HNWIs. Generally, client involvement in managing the finance remains on the lowerside. This brings onus of managing the whole gamut of investment and due performance single-handedlyon the shoulders of investment manager.

Passion Investment (Philanthropy and Social Responsibility)

In the recent years a trend has been observed that bulk of investments by HNWIs has been directedtowards passion investments (art, antique, jewellery, coins, unique assets, luxury), philanthropy andsocial/community causes.As per World Wealth report, 11% of HNW investors worldwide contributed to philanthropic causes with acontribution over 7% of their wealth in year 2006. Ultra-HNWIs contribution was even more - 17% ofUltra-HNW investors that gave to philanthropy contributed over 10% of their wealth. In total, this equatesto more than US$285 billion globally.

Against this backdrop, new breed of HNWIs expect to strategically manage the wealth and personalresources allocated to philanthropy purpose, in order to maximize its impact. This demands arelationship manager not just to be a passive financial advisor rather a passionate partner sharinginterest and inclination of the associated client.


Limited Leveraging Capabilities of Technology (as an enabler)

In the recent times, we have witnessed technology a key enabler to help business to expand its marketreach with reduced cost of services offering. Online banking and online trading/brokerage services arethe best examples in this regard. Technology leveraging has helped services firm to achieve universalproliferation of market with substantially reducing transaction cost.As business rules and service definitions to guide the applications tends to be quite composite in wealthmanagement services, leveraging the capabilities of technology to meet the business requirement maynot be highly feasible in the initial years.

Technical Architecture and Technology Investment

As business architecture is still evolving, a proven basis of resilient technical architecture and frameworkto support the emerging business greatly remains missing. In absence of this framework, any investmentcommitment towards application development / system implementation would be fraught with severerisk.

Knowledge of Cross-functional Domain Intricate

By very nature of wealth management, it not just involves matters of plain vanilla finance but has intricaterelationship with many elements of domestic / international law, taxation and regulatory norms. In orderto provide sound investment guidance, a relationship manager is required to have intricate knowledge ofdomestic/cross-border finance, accounting, legal and taxation subjects.

Solution Framework

Generic services offering model is going to draw big blank in case of wealth management services. AHNWI client expects exclusiveness in services in a normal manner. In highly competitive market, keyto success for a firm lies in offering exclusiveness in services delivery (high quality services on mostpersonalized basis), going beyond the client expectations.A solution framework with considered inclusion of following key elements would help firms in meetingand exceeding client needs towards sustainable business growth.


Quality of Service Level

Quality of service level provided by the service provider firm would the key determinant of growth andsuccess in client acquisition, client satisfaction and client retention aspects.In a sense, service offering could be developed in the form of partnership with the client based on trustand integrity, where the relationship manager remains highly responsive to client sensitivities andexpectations.Without over-emphasizing, a satisfied client would provide multitude of opportunities of growth ofbusiness – through deepening the relationship, direct / indirect referencing as well as cross selling of

products. In the other situation of deficiency in service level, he would not hesitate to move the businessto another firm.This keeps strong emphasis on continued engagement with the client on the aspects of clientexpectation and servicing, rather than showing extra attention only during the period of client acquisition.Focused around client needs, a broad framework of service offering during whole lifecycle of clientinvestment management would be revolving around: Anticipate, Analyze, Advice, Act and Monitorcycle.

Act

Monitor Anticipate

Analyze

Advice

Universal Service Offering

To meet the client needs in holistic manner, product and service offering range of the firm should be wideenough to cover the investment spectrum across its lifecycle.In an ideal situation, a client would expect to deal with a single firm to get complete range of investmentmanagement services. However, for various business considerations of the service provider firm, inmany situations it may not be a viable proposition to offer those services.While universal service offering with assortment of services under single umbrella is not attainable inhouse,it could be achieved through active partnership and affiliation. But, due consideration is requiredthat quality of service level provided by partners/affiliates does not get compromised in any manner. Anyshortcoming in service quality, even if caused by partner/affiliate’s services, would be ultimately impairingclient satisfaction towards the firm.


Investment in People Processes

As relationship manager remains the face of the firm to a client, success of the firm would be greatlydependent on the skills, drive and enthusiasm of relationship managers (to take an extra mile), whilebonding and dealing with any of client issues.This aspect is more challenging than as it appears. This necessitates transformation of organizationalphilosophy towards its people and people processes contributing to business success. Firms would berequired to invest heavily in human processes to attract, groom and retain a motivated team ofrelationship managers, who will make the real difference between winning and losing the game.

Price not a True Differentiator

Pricing as a key differentiator to distinct the service offering from one firm to other may not be highlyrelevant in case of wealth management services. Focused on performance and quality of service, pricingin isolation will not make much meaning to service seeking clients. Client would always value the pricingfrom the quality of services received. He will certainly not mind paying extra, if he finds services offeredto him meeting and exceeding his expectations.

Unconventional Delivery Channel and Communication

Delivery channel for service content and mode of communication has to be greatly customized - alignedwith the client-desired vehicles. This would require a process of continuous re-inventing and re-defining

the grid of delivery and communication channels to meet client expectations. Impact of technologicaladvancements and its interplay on service delivery and communication method would certainly be anequally challenging aspect to be factored in, while designing such strategies.

Flexibility of Technical Architecture

While business potential appears to be quite high, existing business architecture still does not provideany sound basis to formulate technical roadmap. Added to that, dynamic characteristics of client profilebring an increased challenge in drawing a firm implementation blueprint.In the given situation, any big-bang commitment towards technical implementation plan would not be awise idea. A prudent approach would be to get started on modular basis with progressive integration offunctional components in order of its functional significance. Gaining insight and confidence around thebusiness processes, this could be gradually scaled over the period of time.To meet the information technology requirements, a firm has several alternatives (or combination ofalternatives) to consider:

a) Integrated solution approach: Developing in-house applications to meet end-to-end new businessrequirements. These applications are based on existing technology architecture of the firm and areclosely integrated with the existing service models. It would be a least preferred choice in thecurrent situation, on count of cost, time, lack of clarity and complexity of solution.b) Service Bureau /ASP Model: A recent trend has been witnessed in the solution provider’slandscape. Many of information technology service providers have come out with novel solution forinvestment management / investment processing platform in the form of service bureau / ASP. Thisplatform provides integrated end-to-end processing infrastructure and services including core ofbusiness processes of wealth management.On the part of a wealth management firm, paying agreed charges to service bureau provider, option


of service bureau completely eliminates the requirement of ongoing resource commitment and costof maintaining information technology infrastructure.While total cost of owning may be the key motivating point for a wealth management firm to adoptservice bureau model, the key consideration of providing high quality of service level with enhancedresponsiveness may not be adequately answered. The question remains to be answered is – whatwould be the key differentiator in service offering of two wealth management firms operating fromthe same service bureau?

c) Stand-alone commercial software product/solutions: Pre-packaged solutions that can befocused to specific part of services or provide comprehensive end-to-end processing. These can bedeployed independently or could be integrated with existing systems. Cost, customization andintegration difficulties would be the challenging points.A loosely oriented technical architecture with optionality and mix of Build – Buy – Integrate componentswould be considered as a good beginning point. To provide enough resilience and high businessrelevance, any of the considered option and associated structure should keep due provisions for thefollowing key elements:- Considering the complexity of business processes and involved business rules, rule basedprocessing would be the core of processing.- Client profile acquires many new dimensions with plethora of attributes. Client data is required to beappropriately managed (aggregate / segregate) to build a profile driven solution offering.- Decision support and client oriented analytics acquire more importance.- Applications should provide adequate flexibility to incorporate manual processing interfaces.

ConclusionGeneric services offering model is going to draw big blank in case of wealth management services. AHNWI client expects exclusiveness in services in a normal manner. In highly competitive market, key tosuccess for a firm lies in offering exclusiveness in services delivery (high quality services on mostpersonalized basis), going beyond the client expectations.Service offering developed in the form of partnership with the client based on trust and integrity, withrelationship manager remaining highly responsive to client sensitivities and expectations becomes thewinning point in client acquisition, client retention and enhanced client satisfaction.Continued engagement with the client throughout the relationship lifecycle would greatly help inunderstanding dynamic client expectation and providing desired level of services. A broad framework ofservice offering revolving around: Anticipate, Analyze, Advice, Act and Monitor cycle, would provide asound basis to cater evolving client needs.Organizational human process requires re-oriented strategy to attract, groom and retain a motivated teamof relationship managers with cross-functional expertise, who will make the real difference in delivering theservice content.SConsidering the complexity of business rules and service definitions in the business processes, leveragingthe capabilities of technology to meet the business requirement may not be highly feasible in the initialyears. Further, in absence of proven business architecture, basis for resilient technical architecture andframework to support the emerging business still remains desired. This requires adopting a cautiousapproach towards investment commitment in technical implementationA loosely oriented technical architecture with optionality and mix of Build – Buy – Integrate componentswould be considered as a good beginning point. Rule based engine, profile driven solution offering, clientoriented decision support and manual-processing interface would be some of the key considerations inimplementation plan.

References

a) World Wealth Report 2007 by Capgemini and Merrill Lynchb) The Journal of Wealth Management, Winter 2007 (Editorial by Jean L.P. Brunel, Editor)c) Beyond the Back Office – Technology’s role in Wealth Management by Bob Stewart (http://www.investedge.com/pdf/beyond-the-back-office.pdf )d) 2007 Wealth Management Best Practices: A practical guide by Vicki Morris, NorthStar andSonaimuthu N, Infosys Technologies Ltde) Boomers Need Wealth Management Services – CU360 – Online Research and advice portal(http://cu360.cuna.org/articles/story.php?doc_id=2180)

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A Study on Profit Maximization