Life insurance firm AIA Singapore has partnered with the Wealth Management Institute (WMI) of Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) to improve the training of its advisers.
The partnership will provide AIA personal wealth managers (AIA PWMs) the same level of training and IBF certification as private bankers.
WMI offers the Certified Private Banker (CPB) programme, which trains an individual to serve the high net worth market.
Any AIA PWMs, who successfully complete the Client Advisor Competency Standards (CACS) assessment and WMI’s CPB Level 1, will be eligible for the “Wealth Management – Relationship Management – Private Banking” certification under the IBF Standards Level 1.
Ho Lee Yen, chief customer and marketing officer of AIA Singapore, said: “A key pillar of AIA Singapore’s comprehensive wealth management proposition is that we seek to continuously provide our AIA personal wealth managers with opportunities to elevate their professionalism and maintain a competitive edge.
“This allows them to better address the needs of our affluent customers throughout their life journey, protecting their wealth, well-being, and legacy for generations to come,”
Features of the training
AIA Singapore has also worked with WMI to design two other programmes for its PWMs to undertake before moving on to the WMI CPB Level 1.
This “structured learning pathway” will cover:
- Ethics, rules and regulations;
- Financial markets and macroeconomics;
- Needs of business owners and client relationship management;
- Digital wealth management;
- Investment and insurance products; and
- Investment advisory and wealth planning.
Foo Mee Har, chief executive of WMI, said: “We are encouraged by AIA Singapore’s commitment to raise the competencies of their AIA personal wealth managers and to invest in their employees’ lifelong learning and professional development.”
AIA Singapore wants to have 120 PWMs graduates by 2020.
National workforce growth
The partnership aims to support Singapore’s national agenda to improve its financial sector workforce.
This is something that NTU has been involved with for a while.
In February 2018, DBS Bank and NTU Singapore teamed up in a bid to build a sustainable talent pool of wealth management associates.
Several months later, NTU launched its postgraduate programme for people in London and New York to cater the growing demand for highly-trained expertise in Asia’s asset and wealth management sectors.
