Bankers in wealth management need to press their competitive advantage as fiduciaries, according to Dave Coffaro, chief fiduciary officer and head of trust and fiduciary services for Wells Fargo Wealth Management.

“The opportunity has never been greater than it is right now,” Mr Coffaro said, addressing the afternoon general session of the American Bankers Association’s annual Wealth Management and Trust Conference in Phoenix yesterday. “We have to tell the story better.”

Emphasizing fiduciary values of prudence, loyalty and risk management were the keys to leveraging banker’s  potential competitive advantage, he argued.

“Prudence is taking the exciting game of wealth management and making it safer,” Mr Coffaro said. “The prudent investment rule that trustees follow is rooted in modern portfolio theory that markets are efficient and can’t be outsmarted.”

Risk management should include identifying as many sources of risk as possible, he told the conference attendees, while loyalty means putting the client’s interest first.

But in Mr Coffaro’s view, “telling the story better" doesn’t mean more marketing or advertising.

“The best marketing is the people in this room,” he said, referring to the bankers in the audience. “They know the story and need to tell it convincingly to anyone who will benefit."