UBS Wealth Management Australia has appointed Fiona Rowland, the former head of charitable foundations at ANZ Trustees, to lead its wealth planning and philanthropic services division and introduce strategic giving into the group’s advice offering.
While UBS already advises and manages the funds of a substantial number of charities, it does not provide its private banking clientele with philanthropic advice, an area in which Perpetual, GoldmanSachs JBWere (GSJBW) and smaller dealer groups, such as Centric Wealth, are active.
A spokesman for UBS said the motives for establishing a philanthropic services division was to provide a more complete private banking service to clients, including the provision of prescribed private funds and charitable endowment funds, and wrest market share from existing providers.
For some years, Rowland has recognised that philanthropy in Australia has become more strategic. In response to a post on the website of The Age in June 2006 by business journalist Leon Gettler, regarding Warren Buffet’s $37 billion donation to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Rowland writes that “giving to charitable causes is a specialised field, and more people are now taking the opportunity to consult with experts before they give”.
“Giving is now about establishing a relationship with a cause or particular charity,” she continues, “and developing it in such a way that they can be involved in decision-making about how their contributions are used and quantifying the results of how their money is spent.”
Before her tenure at ANZ Trustees, Rowland worked in product development for the financial planning arm of ANZ. Prior to this, she was with law firms Holding Redlich and Minter Ellison, working in trusts, corporate and funds management groups.
