Why you should want to work for a wealth management boutique

In an era of wealth management job-hopping north of the border, the preference of many private bankers is to gravitate towards boutique operations. So, what's the appeal of working for a smaller player?

In recent weeks, Quilter revealed that it had poached Alan Aitchison and Mark Hallam from Deutsche Bank's Edinburgh office, and Charlotte Square hired former Bank of Scotland man, Stephen Webster, to lead its Scottish operations.

Delving back much further, when a host of new boutiques set up in Scotland between 2008-09, and the trend is more pronounced - not least Williams de Broë's raid of 27 staff from Barclays Wealth in Edinburgh.

"An adviser working in a smaller firm has more freedom over decision making, less pressure to sell in-house products and the opportunity to develop long-term relationships with clients," says Karl Von Bezing, director at the Scorpio Partnership. "What's more, ideally you would not have more than 100-150 clients, depending on the client wealth level. Some of the bigger firms have private bankers managing 300, which means meeting a new client nearly every day."

Greater freedom in the role was something that inspired Saftar Sarwar to leave his role at Barclays Wealth for his current position as managing partner at Kingdom Capital Partners.

"Working for a bigger firm is a great way to gain experience and contacts, but ultimately working for a boutique firm and freeing yourself from the need to sell a myriad of in-house products is liberating," he says.

Perhaps more importantly, to some at least, the compensation can be greater at boutiques. Sarwar says that cash bonuses - not subject to clawback or deferral under new FSA rules - are still possible, and most firms offer equity participation schemes to keep bankers incentivised in the long term.

But if you're going to peddle the mantra of trust and long-term relationships at a boutique, be prepared to commit to this.

"During the boom years, some private bankers were switching jobs nearly every year, which makes it difficult to convince clients over the virtues of moving with them," he says. "If working for a boutique is about restoring trust in wealth managers, people moving there should expect to stay there for a longer period of time."