After withstanding several crises, wealth manager Reuss Private is hatching plans for a branch in Singapore.
It was Felix Brem’s third crisis in 20 years. He founded Brem, Neff & Partner in 2000 with Roman Neff just as the dot-com bubble burst. «I had to tell clients right at the start that they had lost money with us,» he told finews.asia.
Then, before the decade was out, the global financial crisis hit, along with the U.S. tax controversy. The wealth manager renamed Reuss Private, found itself caught in the headlines when partner and former top UBS banker Raoul Weil was arrested in Italy and extradited to the U.S. after being accused of helping Americans evade taxes.
Back as CEO
Brem had to return to the business in a hurry and take over as CEO from Weil. And he was still there last March when the COVID-19 pandemic broke out. But he knew exactly what he needed to do.
«During a crisis, a manager cuts costs while the entrepreneur picks up the phone,» he said. He was clear that he needed to compensate for any shortfalls by increasing revenue volume - and earnings, prompting he and everyone in his team to call current and potential clients.
Good First Quarter
Judging by the numbers, it looks like he made the right call. In the first quarter, the business saw an inflow of 713 million Swiss francs ($773 million) total in net new money and an additional 410-million-franc investment gain from market performance.
Reuss now has 34 billion in overall assets from private clients, family offices and about 1,600 financial intermediaries. The business has grown to 150 employees in Switzerland, Germany and Liechtenstein, including Berlin-based fintech subsidiary Foo.
The strong demand being seen for private label funds and asset management mandates in Germany has also helped, serving as a testbed for what the Swiss wealth and asset management industry can expect in the future in terms of regulation, Brem maintained. «We are ten years behind the EU,» he said.
Singapore Office Planned
Brem is currently preparing to expand to Asia and is planning, as a first step, to open a Singapore office over the next 1-2 years from the contacts he built in the city from a year spent in Phuket, Thailand in 2016.
Weil, acquitted by the U.S. in the meantime, continues as a partner – and has kept his entrepreneurial spirit. «That is what makes him such an important sparring partner for me today,» Brem said.
