Sunday, May 12, 2013

Wealth managers worldwide look at art

In the backdrop of the current challenging economic situation globally, astute investors are looking to diversify and safeguard their portfolios. For this, they are keen to add tangible and reliable assets, moving beyond equities and bonds - a trend that the wealth management agencies cannot really ignore, taking into account clients are sitting on a whopping treasure assets estimated to be $4 trillion.

The global wealth management community has to regard it as an important asset class, with no less than 43 percent of the top wealth managers, who were surveyed by Deloitte Luxembourg in collaboration with ArtTactic, revealing they were indeed strongly aware of the new developments regarding art’s prominence as asset, up from just 33 percent a year ago. A majority (60 percent) of them see stronger demand in the near future for a class of ‘collectible & emotional’ assets.

With the international art market gathering momentum, art as a tangible asset class is drawing more attention of wealth managers; they are emphasizing on the concept, providing the thrust to a new domain of professional services, blending finance and art. This, in fact, remains one of the key findings of the latest ‘Art & Finance’ study report that throws light on the development of this specialized branch over the past year or so.

For new-age wealth managers, competition is not any longer the prime or sole motivation to include art in conventional wealth structuring: rather client demand is the key driver,” Deloitte Luxembourg’s Adriano Picinati di Torcello, who coordinates the Art and Finance practice explained.

Vincent Gouverneur, their partner and co-leader (Art & Finance practice) concurs to state: “Client demand is rapidly opening up newer possibilities for closer collaboration between art professionals and wealth managers who must integrate the former into their service mix so as to meet clients’ needs. Art professionals can provide specialized services, which cater to the financial aspects of transacting as well as owning art.”

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