Dolphins to Delfin - Annamaria Koerling

With 2021 in full swing, and delivering an expectedly underwhelming experience similar to that of its predecessor, BYOB is here to keep you safe in the familiar warm embrace that is our monthly investment interview. 

This month’s instalment is a little bit of a special one as we bring a valued member of our advisory board centre-stage to chat about dolphins, Kathryn Hepburn, how tech is helping manage client expectations and the growing presence of female leaders in wealth management. 

Currently Managing Partner at Delfin Private Office, Annamaria Koerling is a name you may recognise from wealth management’s sphere of influential figures as she (modestly) boasts a wealth of experience helping the likes of Cazenove, Merrill Lynch, Schroders and the Jersey Financial Services Commission. Not shy to get involved she’s deservedly been decorated with a plethora of accolades, so you can expect some insightful thoughts, tips and stories in this one. Sit back, and enjoy.

As is now the tradition, let’s start with some quickfire questions. 

Favourite animal?

Dolphins, of course! They are smart, sociable animals, always learning, playful and sensitive. Encountering them in the wild is a great and calming experience. This is one of the reasons why we named our firm Delfin.

Favourite superhero?

Iron man, I like the humour and the fact that his superpowers come from engineering and technology genius, behind the facade he is very human, a reformed weapons manufacturer who wants to do good but is still a flawed character.

Favourite movie? 

As a child, I grew up with the Bond movies and I always dreamed of owning a DB5 so I am tempted to choose one of those, but I think it has to be Summertime with Kathryn Hepburn and Rossano Brazzi. Set in the Venice of the ‘50s it makes me think of my father who captained a minesweeper and swept the mines from the canals and the place where he met and married my mother in ‘47. My Italian roots are an important part of my identity.

Favourite cocktail? 

Espresso Martini (perfect mix of sugar, caffeine and alcohol!), the only downside is that it makes you quite disinhibited!

Right, easy questions over, let’s get stuck in. Could you start by telling the readers a little more about yourself?

I grew up in the UK (Kent) and in Italy (Trieste) although all my education was in the UK. I grew up bilingual and was always fascinated by the role of language in the ‘art’ of communication, which pathed the way to studying modern languages at Cambridge. I was good with numbers as well as words and decided to look for a career which enabled me to combine both. So, I joined Morgan Stanley soon after leaving university, in the days when the US banks had a relatively small footprint in the UK, working mainly in fixed income trading. It was an exciting time to be in trading with the derivatives markets developing quickly and fast European expansion. I travelled extensively and dealt with offices all over Europe. I knew however that I wanted to be in a client-facing role at a time when Schroders was looking for a German speaker for its private client team. Within weeks I had moved to the buy-side and never looked back. I have worked for a small number of great firms over the last 25 years and have learnt and developed professionally in all of them. I feel that I have been fortunate to find a career in the science of investing combined with the art of communicating with people. 

With an impressive amount of experience under your belt, which role has been the most enjoyable and why?

My last role as an employee, as the head of Wealth Management of family-owned bank C Hoare and Co, was probably the one I enjoyed the most before I set up a business of my own with other partners. We had the huge luxury of stewarding a small business with a great brand and reshaping it. I was supported by a talented and dedicated team. The business flourished winning over 20 awards in 7 years and most importantly with very high levels of customer satisfaction. We had a culture of doing the right thing, it permeated the organisation and it was by far the most collegiate and positive place I have worked in. The results followed. 

Along the way you picked up two "Woman of the Year" awards - what does the growing success of female leadership in the financial services sector mean to you?

We are starting to make measurable progress in improving the diversity in wealth management and fintech but we still have a long way to go. Female founders still find it harder to get funding. In the businesses I advise or am involved with, I see that we are still losing women mid-career. It is critically important that we continue to work towards creating environments which enable the entire workforce to thrive, women included. We need an environment where we can be equal but different. Diverse businesses are more resilient and creative.

One of your more recent success stories is the creation of Delfin Private Office back in 2020, in the midst of a pandemic. What instigated that decision?

We have been in business for 4 years providing independent strategic wealth advisory services and receiving great recognition, competing with much more established businesses. You are right though that this year we demerged, enabling us to develop and invest in our international family office services business. We work with families with complex needs and generally but not always with international requirements. We give them the highest quality advice and services in a flexible and personal way. We now have over $4bn of assets under our supervision across three continents.

Working with families that have complex needs, how has tech allowed you to adapt to both their servicing and managing their expectations?

It is a critical component. Transparency, objectivity and rigour are key to making good decisions and, for this, you need technology to help analyse, interpret and present the data. Good tech also significantly improves productivity and helps you focus on the value-added parts of your work, the ‘and so what’ discussion with your clients, what is the data telling you and what action should we take. This is where BYOB plays such an important role for us. We were so enthusiastic that we invested in the business. 

As one of BYOB's investors you clearly have a keen eye for talent, but what do you look for from startups when you make personal investments?

There are no guarantees, of course, and it is hard to make a success of a startup. I look for businesses where the founders are passionate about their business but also disciplined and resilient. They need this to be able to cope with the inevitable setbacks. They also need to be able to evolve from their initial good idea, you have to keep testing, iterating and retesting until they hit on the winning formula. Personally, I always look for businesses where at least one of the founders is a woman.

What are the biggest ways the industry has changed over your career? What's still the same?

Financial services, in some ways, has changed beyond recognition. When I started, derivatives were very new, we really did not have that many tools in our tool kits and very little contemporaneous information. Screens were shared, we didn’t even have networked PCs, we used calculators and wrote tickets out by hand, emails also came later. All decisions were based on fundamental research and face to face meetings. It was slow and painstaking. The business of investing has become more complicated, more sophisticated, faster-paced and digital. Information is widely available, real and fake. There are plenty of positives, it is more efficient, more transparent, less costly and more accessible, there is also more fraud, more short-termism, more ways for the inexperience to get caught out. Financial education has not improved, this is one of my passions. We cannot democratise access to savings and investments without education.

A fantastic answer to a rather open question, thank you! Finally, to finish things off, what 3 words would best describe the industry trends you expect to see over the next 12 months? 

I am an optimist, 2020 was tough, we have all lost someone or something in Covid. It was also an equal opportunity destroyer of wealth, but I believe that we have a chance to emerge from this more resilient, with a greater focus on sustainability and a clearer purpose. 

Well, I think we can all agree that that was a great interview. A huge thank you to Annamaria for taking the time out to share your thoughts on so many different fascinating topics. Espresso Martinis for all. 

Next month we will be continuing on the journey of our diverse advisory board as they provide you with a little bit of insight into their area of expertise, their experiences and any predictions for the future. Until then.