The academic year has started, so this publication is outlining the graduate and post-graduate courses aimed at wealth management around the world. The Asia-Pacific region has a number of strong organisations in this field.

Editor's
note: Last September, we issued a list of
graduate and post-graduate training courses in wealth management around
the world. The response was very positive and as the “school year”
resumes, this item is being reissued with some minor adjustments. As
ever, we invite readers to suggest any updates or corrections where
necessary, as we appreciate that this list may be incomplete or needs to
be adjusted. To do so, email tom.burroughes@wealthbriefing.com or
telephone +44 207 148 0178

If wealth management is to grow successfully and maintain the highest
standards of client service, firms that try to get by through poaching
staff from rivals will find this ploy proves to be expensive if the
talent pool does not expand with a strong graduate intake. 

Consequently, graduate and post-graduate training and development in
the sector is a vital, long-term process. In terms of Master of Business
Administration courses for post-graduates, for example, there are as
yet few courses available, but a longer list of other certification
programmes does exist.

Courses and institutions.

-- Edinburgh Napier University, UK. It operates an MSc in Wealth Management.

-- Executive MBA in Asset and Wealth Management – Tepper School of Business, Carnegie Mellon University.

-- Executive MBA in Asset and Wealth Management – HEC Lausanne,
Faculty of Business and Economics  at the University of Lausanne.

-- Singapore Management University, which operates an MSc in wealth
management alongside the Swiss Finance Institute. In 2009, Yale
University was added as an academic partner.

-- Wharton. The US business school, under the leadership of Professor
Chris Geczy, has a “wealth management initiative”. Its wealth
management courses fall mainly within the school’s Executive Education
division; it does not have a stand-alone MBA for wealth management,
however. Undergraduate and MBA students may take courses that include
related issues.

-- Association of International Wealth Management. Set up in 2007 in
Switzerland by Baker & McKenzie. It has created the Certified
International Wealth Management Diploma.

-- UBS Business University Wealth Management Campus, Singapore. The
organisation, run by the Swiss bank, adopts the Singapore Banking and
Finance’s Financial Industry Competency Standards, established in 2005.
(WealthBriefingAsia, recently
covered the organisation here.)

-- MBA In Global Asset and Wealth Management, by Simon Fraser University Vancouver, Canada.

-- MSc in Financial Planning and Wealth Management, Manchester Metropolitan University Business School.

-- CFA Institute, Charlottesville, VA (The Institute of Chartered
Financial Analysts). It operates a CFA programme that has been dubbed
“the gold standard” by the Financial Times and “the global passport” by The Economist
magazine. The CFA programme addresses issues such as tax-efficient
wealth accumulation, cross-border estate planning, client communication
strategies and financial planning. Contact www.cfainstitute.org

-- BPP - CISI Masters in Wealth Management.

At present, the following business schools do not, as far as this
publication was able to find out, provide specific MBAs for wealth
management, although the sector can be included as part of other MBA
courses and feature in course curricula. The schools are: Harvard
Business School; Yale School of Management; Columbia Business School and
Wharton (see above). As also mentioned, Yale University is working with
the SFI  and Singapore Management University on an MSc programme.

A number of firms provide their own in-house training for graduates,
such as Credit Suisse and Coutts.