Hello, I'm Mike Chisholm, Chief Executive Officer at LGT Crestone.
As we enter the second quarter of 2025, I wanted to give you an update on the business, and what you can expect for the remainder of the year.
At the end of last year LGT globally surpassed A$640bn in client assets, and this growth has been supported in Australia with us having recently exceeded A$34bn.
You may recall I wrote to you in November to share news that we were acquiring the Commonwealth Private Advice business.
We are proud to have been selected by CBA as the new home for its advice business. The acquisition was a competitive bid process, and our success reflects our reputation for providing wealthy Australians with stability and scale through LGT, unrivalled investment expertise and most importantly an unwavering commitment to putting clients first.
The acquisition and growth provides LGT Crestone with greater scale to access leading global investment managers and exclusive opportunities for clients. It also provides us with a larger asset pool to negotiate fees on your behalf.
Commonwealth Private Advice clients joining our business will be supported by their existing Private Wealth team, who will become employees of LGT Crestone. For you, this means the relationship you have built with your LGT Crestone Investment Advisor will not be impacted.
I hope you have had the chance to read our Chief Investment Office's regular market updates or attend one of their events. While global growth has been subdued and geopolitical disruption threatens further volatility, our growth and balanced model portfolios have been well positioned by this team of experts and continue to outperform their respective benchmarks.
In response to client demand we are also continuing to expand our credit capability following the successful launch of Lombard Lending and Mortgages. We have seen strong client demand for our lending solutions, fuelled by a desire from clients to diversify their investment portfolio by borrowing against existing assets including property or hedge currency risk in their portfolios.
We have also launched a new multi asset-class portfolio discretionary solution which allows clients to access the best of our Chief Investment Office views on asset allocation and portfolio construction. This structure supports regular rebalancing of portfolios in response to changing market conditions and aligned with the latest Chief Investment Office team's views. It also has an outstanding quarterly reporting engine to keep clients up to date with what is happening in their portfolio
Finally, from a sustainability point of view we continue to look for opportunities for clients to both generate investment returns and have a positive impact on society and the environment. To focus on the transition to net zero and to understand the opportunities available to investors to benefit from this transition, I am pleased to share that LGT's third global climate change conference will be held in Sydney later this year.
This event will be held at Taronga Zoo on 16 October hosted by His Serene Highness Prince Max von und zu Liechtenstein. It will feature local experts from CSIRO, the Australian Climate Change Authority and some of the most significant Australian philanthropists and thought-leaders in this space.
From a management perspective we are also in the process of conducting our annual adviser net promoter score survey. Very soon you will receive an email from us asking you to answer a few short questions about how likely you are to recommend LGT Crestone and your adviser.
I'd like to thank those of you who have completed the questionnaire in the past and encourage you to do so again this year.
We passionately believe in continuously improving the service that we provide to you our clients, and this survey is one way which we collect feedback on how we're doing and where we can improve. It's also an important part of how we recognise the critical role of our investment advisers.
I'd like to acknowledge the feedback that you have provided around our client portal. We have heard you. I can confirm that we are working on ways to improve this experience for you. I'll have more to share on this later in the year.
I'm pleased to share that our net promoter score continues to outperform the industry and improve every year. Our 2024 net promoter score was 51, up from 49 in 2023. This is an outstanding result, as independent researcher Investment Trends tells us, the average NPS for wealth management in 2024 was just 2.
Finally, with another big year ahead of us I would like to thank you once again for choosing LGT Crestone. We feel privileged for the role we play in helping you grow and protect your wealth for generations to come.
Thank you for your continued trust.
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