Alison Parry – first year as Head of Private Wealth

Alison Parry was appointed Head of Private Wealth at our Guernsey office, in 2019.

Alison – how do you reflect on your first year at Intertrust Group?

It went very quickly! My time here has been really enjoyable; it’s fast paced and the business progresses quickly. Stephanie, our Global CEO, really focuses on agility and innovation and has a clear roadmap for us as a group. We’ve got a great future vision for the Private Wealth team and have onboarded some exciting new clients as well as really growing and broadening the skills in the team.

What’s been your biggest achievement?

I’m really proud of the team and the people I work with. There’s been a lot of change since I arrived as Intertrust Group becomes a much more agile firm to suit the changing needs of our clients. We’ve developed the existing skills in our team but also hired some fantastic talent such as Camille Hordeaux, Mark Watson and Rob Quinn. Throughout all of that change, our people have remained positive and upbeat and go the extra mile just as they always have. On top of that, having 90% of the firm working from home over lockdown and never losing any productivity is a fantastic achievement.

What trends have you noticed in private wealth?

I’ll speak generically as I think COVID has certainly had some impacts which are yet to be realised in the long term. But overall, clients’ needs are evolving. Some of our more established clients are becoming more data and tech savvy as they learn more about the benefits of technology, and our younger clients have grown up in that world so are already digitally literate. The structures are changing as they become larger or need to be more flexible and clients are starting to think more actively about future planning and the next generation, which is no longer a ‘taboo’ topic. We’ve also seen a rise in female HNWIs, who do have some different needs which require us to tailor our service, which we are able to do nicely. Our clients are people and their needs will continue to evolve just as society does, so it’s important that we have the right solutions and people in place to be able to meet a variety of requirements.

So you’ve built this great team, and you’re in touch with clients, what’s next for private wealth in Guernsey?

Well, Guernsey have got the largest private wealth office within Intertrust Group, but we won’t stop there. We remain open to M&A opportunities for growth and are very much open for business. I’m really enjoying all of the new clients we get to speak and pitch to, even from other areas of the business like Funds and Corporate. These clients are looking to structure their family offices with us as they have the reassurance and experience of working with us in their other business endeavours. Clients actively seek to structure their assets not just in Guernsey but specifically with us, so I’m certainly looking forward to another busy 12 months!