Private clients are changing and so is the regulatory environment in which their advisers operate. These were the key issues under debate at Legal Week‘s inaugural Private Client Legal Forum, which was held earlier this month on the banks of Italy’s Lake Como.
The global economic slowdown that has hit corporations so hard over the last two years has also had its effect on individuals, chiefly through the rapid decline of the equity markets.
In the last two years, equity wealth held in private hands has declined in the US by some $7trn (£4.1trn), while the number of high net worth (HNW) individuals – defined as those with net investable assets of $1m (£589,206) or more – has declined by half a million.
