Service allows clients to directly and independently manage their portfolios while leveraging the bank's expertise and systematic portfolio health checks approach.

The wealth management division of German lender Deutsche Bank has rolled out dbXpert, a wealth advisory offering that «bridges the gap between transactional advisory and wealth discretionary mandates» by giving clients control over their portfolios while charging a fixed fee for investments.

The service provides clients with an asset allocation framework, scenario analyses and health checks for their portfolios. Clients will also have access to their relationship manager and investment manager for dedicated portfolio support. In addition, trailer-free share classes, usually reserved for institutional investors, will be made exclusively available to dbXpert clients, the bank said.

«In Asia, discretionary portfolio management has traditionally been less popular than transactional advisory as clients like to retain control over their portfolios,» Lok Yim, head of Deutsche Bank Wealth Management, Emerging Markets, said about the launch of the service.

Changing Demands

«Fee transparency and independent advice are critical. It is therefore essential that we move towards the contracted advisory service model where clients pay us an advisory fee, rather than transaction fees and trailer fees,» Wei Mei Tan, Head of Advisory and Investment Solutions Emerging Markets, said

dbXpert is offered to the bank's clients in Hong Kong and Singapore with a minimum portfolio of $2.2 million. Deutsche Bank Wealth Management is one of the world’s leading global wealth managers, with client assets of 302 billion euros globally at end-March.