Shinhan Financial launches one-stop consulting service

The launch ceremony of Shinhan Financial Group’s wealth management solution team, ‘Shinhan Premier Pathfinder,’ held on the 22nd. [Courtesy of Shinhan Financial Group Co.]

South Korea’s Shinhan Financial Group Co. launched its “Shinhan Premier Pathfinder” service, which brings asset management experts from Shinhan Bank Co. and Shinhan Securities Co. together to provide consulting services on business succession and corporate governance improvements.

This initiative aims to offer a one-stop service that goes beyond portfolio advice to include consultations and advisory services for high-net-worth individuals managing businesses.

Shinhan Financial Group said on Sunday that its “Shinhan Premier Pathfinder,” which was launched on July 22nd, 2024, formed an expert group that extends its scope beyond traditional wealth management (WM) areas such as stocks, bonds, taxation, and real estate to include trusts, inheritance, business succession, and IB services.

The Pathfinder team consists of 88 experts, including 29 from Shinhan Bank and 59 from Shinhan Securities, with 19 specialists focused on business succession and corporate governance areas such as inheritance and taxation.

“The wealth management market is attracting a wide range of clients, including institutions and entrepreneurs,” Oh Gun-young, who heads Shinhan Premier Pathfinder, said. “Our Pathfinder team provides comprehensive consultations and advice across the entire asset management spectrum, including areas previously accessible only to institutional investors such as corporate governance and IB deals.”

What sets the team’s service apart from other financial groups’ asset management services is its “coordinating” feature. The Pathfinder headquarters, which serves as the control tower for its experts, includes field specialists like Oh and Woo Byung-tak alongside coordinators who assess client needs and dispatch the appropriate experts.

“Even if a client requests real estate consultation, it often turns out that they also need advice on taxation, inheritance, or gift-giving,” Oh said. “In these cases, sending a real estate expert alone would not be enough.” “Our Pathfinder team operates in an ‘agile’ manner, matching the right experts from our pool of 88 professionals to comprehensively address client needs,” he added.

The Shinhan Premier Pathfinder also tailors seminar topics offered to clients to their specific needs. It actively adjusts its content to meet clients’ expectations, instead of simply proposing topics and waiting for interested clients to attend. As a result, 19 client seminars were scheduled through the end of September just three weeks after its launch.

“When an event, such the most recent stock market crash, occurs, our Pathfinder experts immediately analyze and consult with clients on how to respond,” Oh said. “We cannot make predictions about various geopolitical factors, such as the U.S. presidential election, but we can offer our clients insights, such as including gold in their portfolios to avoid concentration risks.”

Shinhan Financial also expanded its PIB centers, which combine private banking (PB) services and investment banking (IB) services. It opened a new location in Yeouido, southwest Seoul, following the launch of a PIB center in Gangnam, southern Seoul, earlier in 2024, with the latest location attracting over 650 billion won ($481.47 million) in assets within seven months.

The move is designed to strengthen corporate financial services for individual clients, such as financing during the startup and growth phases, initial public offerings (IPOs), mergers and acquisitions (M&As), and business succession, positioning Shinhan as a leader in the asset management sector.

“We plan to target not only Yeouido but northern Seoul as well, leveraging our networks with private equity firms and real estate asset management companies in Yeouido to offer differentiated asset management services to our clients,” a Shinhan Bank official said.