Road to PWM

Hello everyone,

I've recently graduated from what most would consider a target university in the UK (Studying Accounting and Finance) and started at Deloitte (UK) in the Private Client Services division of the Deloitte Private arm. As the name suggests, we provide advisory services to private clients, which due to the size of Deloitte, tend to be UHNWIs and their family offices.

At this current moment, I’m happy at the firm and see it as an ideal place to do my ACA-CTA joint qualification over the next 3.5 years, with a view to moving into Private wealth management/Private banking at a BB (preferably Goldman) upon completion of my professional qualifications. However, admittedly, after my first month at the firm, I've quickly realised the role is much more tax based than I’d hoped. We were explicitly told in our compliance training that we should never give clients investment advice, and instead only really offer Tax-related advice regarding their investment structures, philanthropy, estate planning etc. There are, to my knowledge, some teams within Deloitte private that do less tax related work, however I likely won't be able to fashion a move into those teams until I've become a qualified advisor.

So, despite the direct exposure to the clients I’d be working with in PWM/PB (which I'm sure may help in the event of my being in the position to win PWM business in the future), both the ACA and CTA qualifications (chartered accountant and chartered tax advisor for any non-UK people), and the Deloitte brand on my CV - I'm struggling to see what transferrable skills I'm going to gain over the next 3.5 years that will set me up for a robust PWM application and move into a BB.

So essentially, my questions are:

• What should/can I be doing from day one to set me up for the move to PWM/PB at a BB after completing my professional qualifications?

• Will my time and role at Deloitte stand me in good stead for a good move into PWM/PB, or should I be looking to move?

• How respected and useful are the two professional qualifications (ACA and CTA) in the PWM/PB industry?

• Are there any people with stories of making the move from tax roles into PWM/PB?

Thanks in advance guys, any thoughts are very appreciated.