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Switzerland's sub-scale independent asset managers are a dying breed – so goes the conventional wisdom. But many houses are brimming with confidence over the future, finews.com found.

It was the talk of Zurich's cozy banking district, where everyone knows each other: howWergen & Partner managed to escape from full integration into Swiss private bank, which acquired the wealth manager earlier this year.

The backstory? Julius Baer bought the Zurich-based firm in February with plans to bake it into its own wealth management subsidiary, WMPartners. But WMPartners itself vanished into the private bank just months later, in a sudden reversal of strategy under Yves Robert-Charrue. The brand name disappeared, and clients and advisors are set to move to Julius Baer by year-end.

Wergen & Partner Protests

But it was tiny Werger which managed to avoid the same fate as WMPartners: Wergen will continue to use its own brand. According to people familiar with the matter, Wergen's leaders threatened Julius Baer with an exodus of clients and advisors if they weren't left alone.

Wergen's power against a sector heavyweight like Julius Baer speaks volumes about the competitive landscape for business with wealth clients. The firm's successful fight for its autonomy is also a sign of the new confidence among independent asset managers.

Better Performance?

That too is unexpected: Switzerland's cadre of independent wealth managers have regularly been pegged for extinction since the financial crisis of 2008-09. But the sector is surprisingly hard to extinguish: according to estimates, roughly 2,500 independent firms still manage roughly 400 billion Swiss francs in client assets.

A Credit Suisse survey of 300 of them shows that over half believed they have outperformed the wider sector on revenue growth, profitability, and performance on their clients' assets in the past three years – hardly a death knell. 

Aquila Doubles

Another sign of the supposedly feeble industry's strength is that new players continue to emerge – and flourish. Max Cotting, head of a large Swiss platform for independent wealth managers, told finews.com recently that he wants to double the number of partner firms (in German).