It goes without saying that wealth managers are not miracle workers, and there were few ways to invest clients' capital over the past 12 to 18 months that would not have lost them money.
"Wealthy people were disproportionately exposed to financial markets. Usually, asset classes are not all correlated, for example, you have fixed income when equities are not doing well. Last year, only government bonds did well," says Chris Meares, CEO of global private banking at HSBC in London.
