Laurent was a teenager when he had the chance to swap life in Paris for life on the French Riviera for a short time. It was then that he formed a plan to return to the region when he was older. “I love the mountains and the sea. So I realised that this would be one of the best places in the world for me to live.” And why Monaco in particular? “I travelled around a lot when I was younger, so the international aspect of living and working in Monaco was a key attraction to me.”
Now, almost three decades later, Laurent is part of a team serving Julius Baer’s clients in Monaco. His experience is common to many who’ve made the principality their home. With its mild climate, proximity to the French Alps, and spectacular coastline, the world’s second-smallest sovereign state offers its inhabitants an outstanding quality of life. And as a low-tax jurisdiction, it provides an excellent environment for administration and international business.
Laurent’s colleague Maria Eugenia, a native of Argentina, says the beauty of the place is its small size. “I can pop round to my daughter’s school or take my son to the doctor quickly in a way that’s not possible in a large city, where you need to plan everything two weeks ahead. Monaco enables you to use your time effectively.” It’s one of the main reasons Maria Eugenia and her husband chose to raise their three children here. “It’s important to find that combination – a place where you can live out your own purpose and the purpose of the company that you work for.”
Making a difference
Size also matters when it comes to finding the ideal professional environment. Having begun their careers in larger institutions, both Laurent and Maria Eugenia recognise that, while Julius Baer has a global footprint, it remains a bank with a family spirit.
“Working in a huge bank with hundreds of thousands of employees can leave you feeling quite peripheral”, says Laurent. “At Julius Baer, our people consider themselves closer to entrepreneurs rather than part of a large organisation with a huge hierarchy. We get to know top management personally and they’re very down-to-earth in the way they work with us.” Unlike his experiences in other companies where the culture was dominated by the headquarter country, Laurent also feels that Julius Baer is successful in avoiding a parochial culture. “We might have a long Swiss heritage but the bank feels very international.”
For Maria Eugenia, Julius Baer’s entrepreneurial spirit plays an important role in enabling its people to make a meaningful difference. “In some of the larger banks, the contribution to the return on assets of one function could penalise the decisions you make in your day-to-day business”, she says. “You don’t have that at Julius Baer because managing private clients’ wealth is our only line of business. Each decision I take has an impact on the bottom line. This puts you in a situation where you feel that what you do matters to those around you.”
In addition to the cultural aspects, Laurent values the fact that Julius Baer has considerable clout on the trading side. “We’ve got excellent people in all categories of trading, and we’re able to offer very competitive pricing, for example, when we buy bonds.” The bank’s ‘pure player’ focus on wealth management is a major pull for him: “It’s very motivating that when decisions are made from the top. It’s always for the benefit of our clients.”
Playing the long game
With its hair-raising Formula 1 and Formula E circuits, high-stakes casino, famous opera, and port of superyachts, Monaco is certainly a place to set pulses racing. Yet, in this country of high rollers you’d be mistaken for thinking a quick buck is the route to a client’s heart.
Quite on the contrary, Maria Eugenia emphasises the importance of taking a long-term view of client relationships. “I continue to exchange text messages and Christmas cards with my clients – new or old.” The benefits of this approach were illustrated by a phone call she received last summer. “Many years ago at another private bank, I built up a book of Argentinian clients. When it became clear that Argentina was no longer a priority market for that bank, I was open with my clients about it and many of them chose to find another bank. This was painful to me after all the hard work I’d put in to building up my book.
“In July last year, one of these clients, a real estate developer, contacted me. He said, ‘I’m an old man now. I’ve finished my career and I’ve passed my business on to the next generation of my family. I’d like you to be the person they bank with. You’ll transmit my values to my son, my daughters and my grandchildren.’ It gave me such pride to know that somebody who had exited a client relationship many years before had kept me in mind and decided we should work together again.”
“A good relationship between a client and a relationship manager is about personal chemistry”, adds Laurent. “For many clients, our added value is not only that they can turn to us for financial advice or to place trades, but that they can tell us their stories and bounce around different ideas. Some clients confide in us in ways they may not with their own family.”
He recounts a story from his early years as an assistant relationship manager that shows how much relatively small acts help to form true connections with clients. “The client asked me to wire his daughter’s enrolment fees to a prestigious American university within a couple of hours. The amount was only USD 700 but I sensed from his tone that this payment was critical to his daughter’s future and that he was late in making it. I knew I had to pull out all the stops. After I’d made the transfer, I called the university to make sure they’d received the payment and I sent the client proof of payment. In that moment, the client decided that I was the guy for him. He’s now in his mid-80s, and even though he’s relocated from Monaco to the UK, he still insists that I look after him.”
On-the-job learning
Maria Eugenia and Laurent both point out that education and opportunities for further development are critical to their success. Interestingly, they mention, the role of relationship manager comes with continuous learning opportunities built-in. “The topic of investments is a fascinating area of study”, says Laurent. “It forces you to keep abreast of what’s happening in the fields of politics, science, the economy, and technology. It’s also a career that teaches you how to manage your own money over the long run. That’s a wonderful life skill to acquire!”
The opportunity to learn on the job is a major pull for Maria Eugenia too. “My managers and colleagues at Julius Baer have been very generous in supporting me this year to participate in an Advanced Management Program, which has been an intense but life-changing experience for me.” She points out that, as a relationship manager, she’s also on a learning journey with her clients. “The average age of the clients I look after is more than 60 years old. They’re successful people who know a lot about business and a lot about life. You get exposure to a wide universe of different sectors. Starting out on a journey with them is one of the richest learning experiences you can imagine.”
And what advice would they give younger colleagues looking to beginn a career as a relationship manager? Laurent is clear: “Your primary focus needs to be your client. Never put yourself ahead of the client.”
For Maria Eugenia, a growth mindset is important. “If you think that serving a client is something that will make you happy when you wake up every day, be brave and give it a try”, she says. “Be curious. Read a lot. Work on your own personal development. It’s essential in our function that we have people from different backgrounds and study areas who can contribute to understanding the value proposition for the client.”