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Based on a presentation by Guillaume Desclée, CEO & Founder of Abbove, at HubFinance Luxembourg
Today, I want to share a story. It's a story about connection, communication, and a fundamental shift in how high-net-worth families approach their wealth. It began seven years ago, driven by a simple, yet profound, desire: to truly listen to these families, without judgment or preconceived notions.
My goal was to understand the challenges they faced in managing their wealth. I had a hunch that there was a disconnect between families and their assets, a latent unease. By bringing together around a hundred affluent families in my offices, and facilitating discussions around key themes, I uncovered the anxieties and deep-seated concerns that kept them up at night.
What struck me most was the simplicity of their core needs. These needs were surprisingly basic, yet consistently overlooked by advisors often more focused on their own objectives than their clients' well-being.
The Core Needs of Wealthy Families: Clarity, Control, and Communication
Through these conversations, three crucial needs emerged:
- Understanding Their Wealth: Many families felt overwhelmed by the increasing complexity of their wealth – structured, diversified, international, and intertwined with dynamic (even atypical) family structures. They struggled to grasp the full picture, lacking the tools to navigate this complexity. A clear, concise understanding of their total net worth – the very foundation – was often missing.
- Controlling and Centralizing Their Data: Information was fragmented, scattered across different advisors and institutions. This lack of a centralized, consolidated view created anxiety. They worried about the future: "If I can't gather this information now, who will be able to do it after me? What situation will I leave for my loved ones?"
- Fostering Communication and Transparency: Families craved open dialogue about sensitive wealth-related topics with their spouses and children. They feared that a lack of communication could transform their wealth – a source of opportunity – into a source of family division, particularly during inheritance.
Beyond Portfolio Performance: The Human Element
What became undeniably clear was that these families weren't primarily concerned with the incremental performance of their investment portfolios. In a market where significant outperformance is the exception, their expectations lay elsewhere. Their concerns were far more fundamental: clarity, control, and the smooth, peaceful transmission of wealth to the next generation, all while preserving family unity.
They were seeking answers to a vital need: to feel fulfilled by being able to use their own wealth while making an inheritance accessible, simple and serene to the next generation. And above all, they needed to preserve the family harmony.
The Birth of a Collaborative Solution
This is where the magic happened. When we presented the concept of a platform designed to address these fundamental needs – an online, accessible hub where they could securely share information with trusted advisors – their enthusiasm was overwhelming.
This platform was envisioned to map, consolidate, and centralize every aspect of their wealth:
- Family structure
- Comprehensive balance sheet
- Details on assets and liabilities
- Inventory of donations within the family group
- A digital vault for essential documents
- Financial and estate planning projection tools
These families were so convinced by this approach that they not only supported the idea but also committed to funding its development by purchasing access before the platform even existed.
We spent hundreds of hours working side-by-side with them, meticulously crafting a platform perfectly tailored to their needs, while remaining user-friendly even for those less comfortable with technology. Six months later, version 1 of the platform was in their hands.
Transforming Relationships: From Transactional to Collaborative
The adoption rate was extraordinary. Families invited their relatives to use the platform and shared access with their advisors. This enabled them, for the first time, to:
- Engage in transparent and objective discussions within the family, addressing long-standing concerns and fostering open communication.
- Collaborate with their trusted advisors, sharing their challenges based on complete, reliable, and transparent information, enabling holistic guidance in their wealth strategy and choices.
Seeing the impact, wealth advisors approached us, asking to distribute our platform to their clients under their own brand. We adapted the solution to meet their needs:
- Goal-Setting Tools: We added features to capture and organize key elements emerging from client discussions facilitated by the platform.
- Enhanced Data Collection and Modeling: We improved and internationalized our data collection methods, wealth modeling, and associated estate planning tools.
The dual objective was to empower advisors to adopt this new, collaborative approach, providing even more relevant and personalized advice, while also significantly improving their operational efficiency. This allows them to scale this tailored, collaborative approach – not just for a handful of clients, but for thousands.
Abbove Today: A Proven Success
Today, I'm proud to share that over 1,000 wealth advisors use Abbove to support more than 35,000 families across Europe.
- 500,000+ Assets listed
- €480 billion Total value represented
- 1,100+ Wealth advisors
- 35,000+ Families supported
- International recognition from Fiduciaries, Big 4, Asset Managers, Family Offices, Life Insurance Brokers, and Banks.
With Abbove, we've successfully transformed transactional relationships into truly collaborative partnerships. We've enabled families and their advisors to communicate around a clear direction, aligning wealth with human and family aspirations.
Our Mission: Wealth as a Tool for Connection and Elevation
Our mission is to make wealth a tool for connection and elevation for families, both today and for generations to come. Wealth advisors now have the opportunity to embrace a digital, engaging, and collaborative approach to meet the expectations of a rapidly evolving market.
Next Steps:
We invite you to:
- Request a personalized demonstration: See the impact of the Abbove solution firsthand.
- Explore case studies: Discover how Abbove can be tailored to your specific structure.
- Receive customized support: Learn how to integrate Abbove into your wealth management offering.
Join us in making your clients' family wealth a tool for connection and elevation, now and for future generations.
