By Claire Symonds

Last month Coutts Woman looked at some of the ways wealthy parents can prepare their children for the responsibility of inheriting large sums of money, while still motivating them to achieve success in their own right.

This subject affects many Coutts clients, in response to which Coutts launched its first ‘Assets & Responsibility’ course for 17 – 23 year olds this summer. The course which was designed to help ensure that the next generation understands the value and power of their wealth, as well as helping to develop their commercial and personal financial acumen was created and launched by Coutts Head of Strategic Marketing, Fiona Fenn Smith.

Fenn Smith, tells Coutts Woman: “We launched this educational programme in response to demand from clients who felt that there was no comprehensive course in the market to adequately prepare their children to inherit. Passing down wealth can bring a variety of challenges to families, not only from a wealth management perspective but also from a personal perspective and through this course we aimed to address both issues.”

The curriculum for ‘Assets and Responsibility’, which ran over two and a half days, was developed with educational consultants and was delivered by a mix of academics and top industry professionals. The modules covered a variety of topics from spending, budgeting and investing, to economic principals and setting up a business. The learning outcomes were focussed not only on educating wealthy young people about finance, but also on educating them about building their own success, through career development and entrepreneurship.

“There were certainly varying degrees of financial awareness amongst the students before they started the course,” observed Fenn Smith. “Although the age range was quite small at only 17 – 23, at those ages life experiences are markedly different and this certainly was reflected in the modules the students found of interest and the way they approached the lectures.”

"Passing down wealth can bring a variety of challenges to families, not only from a wealth management perspective but also from a personal perspective and through this course we aimed to address both issues."

Surprisingly the investment module, which could typically seen as quite a dry subject, came out as one of the most popular elements of the course. Students were given an investment portfolio simulation task to undertake, using a Coutts model of the wealth lifecycle, to understand what asset classes they should look to invest in at different life stages. Talks about the role of the City, economics and saving and spending all helped build the wider picture of the importance of understanding finance and the power of their wealth.

“We had undertaken a pre-course survey, which unsurprisingly had showed a marked difference between what parents wanted their children to get from the course and what the applicants themselves wanted to get from it,” Fenn Smith adds. “Parents were very focussed on their children getting a strong understanding of saving and investing whereas the students were most looking forward to understanding more about philanthropy and entrepreneurship.

“To see the investment elements be so highly rated by the students was a fantastic success for us in terms of not only engaging the children but also meeting the expectations of the parents.”

Although the pre-course survey showed philanthropy to be a key area of interest for wealthy students, Fenn Smith found the reality to be very different. “Philanthropy was a key differentiator between the students on the courses, particularly between those who had not yet entered the world of work and those who were now starting to earn their own money, ” she notes. “It was a real insight into the mindset of these young people that those who weren’t working were very keen to find out more about philanthropy. They showed such a passion for spreading their wealth and the impact that they could have on other people’s lives.

“On the other hand, those who were working and earning their own money for the first time, found it much harder to connect with philanthropy – it was obvious that they were strongly focussed on the wealth that they were just starting to create for themselves. They weren’t yet ready to start thinking about giving that money away until much later.”

So what of the next generation of Britain’s entrepreneurs? With early indications showing that this was a popular topic for students did it indeed follow that those who come from more privileged backgrounds also had the motivation to set up their own enterprises? “Undoubtedly these students had a very strong desire to succeed and many wanted to launch businesses,” states Fenn Smith. “But what came out extremely strongly from the discussions was that of those who wanted to go into their own business, building one successful business was not really of interest and neither was joining the family business. What these children wanted was to build a number of successful businesses, to sell on and build their own wealth in their own right, as many of their parents had done.

“That they already had such a strong drive to succeed really goes against many of the stereotypes we often hear, of children who are spoiled by wealth and feel that they can rely on their parents financially. In fact these children had in all cases really inherited the greatest gift from their parents – the desire to succeed in their own right.”

The first course proved so popular that Coutts is already looking at increasing its offering. “We haven’t even yet announced dates for next year’s courses and I already have a long list of clients whose children want to go on them,” says Fenn Smith. “But more than that, those who attended the sessions this year want an advanced follow on course to help them get an even deeper understanding of the topics. And for me, that is the best endorsement we could have had.”

Coutts Asset and Responsibility courses are currently aimed at children aged 17 - 23. If you are a client and would like to enrol your son or daughter on the next course, or for further information about the course itself, please email Antoinette Santamaria.