Clients view pure-play wealth manager as a safe harbor in turbulent times. Julius Baer is rather enjoying the market's recent choppiness. The Zurich-based bank says its adding private clients because they see it as a safe port in a storm.

"People believe us when we say we don't have these problems that other banks are having," Julius Baer private-banking head Alex Widmer told Reuters the other day. "That is bringing us lots of new contacts right now, clients and also assets."

Smaller pie 

Unlike more diversified financial-service giants in like UBS and Credit Suisse, pure-play wealth managers in Switzerland aren't feeling the credit crisis quite so acutely.

But it seems that the new wave of private clients is less actively keen to trade securities, and the overall value of client assets is shrinking because of the slide in equity markets.

Julius Baer continues to be optimistic about bringing in net new-client money this year at a rate of about 5% of assets under management in private banking. Assets under management in the bank's wealth-management division rose by 11% to $140 billion in the first half of 2007.

Meanwhile Julius Baer says it's mulling the idea of getting back on the ground as a U.S. wealth manager this year, probably through an acquisition. -FWR

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