This year, we have expanded our coverage in two areas of the wealth management market: independent wealth management and family offices, and structured products.

Let’s focus on structured products today. Our reporting has given us a closer look at how demand is evolving, what clients want, and how private banks are using these instruments beyond traditional yield enhancement.

The biggest takeaway is that structured products are moving beyond their traditional role as tactical or speculative trades. Across the banks we have spoken to, demand is being driven by market volatility, the search for yield and clients looking for more targeted ways to gain market exposure.

Equity-linked structures remain a major part of the market, particularly those linked to US equities. Clients are using them to monetise volatility while seeking downside protection or enhanced income.

Standard Chartered has seen demand for fixed-coupon notes, accumulators and decumulators linked to US stocks, while UBP has reported interest in structures linked to US technology stocks and gold.

But equity exposure is only part of the story. Demand for fixed-income structures is also growing, as clients seek ways to enhance yields and reshape their bond exposure rather than simply buying bonds outright. Range accruals, callable structures and Treasury-linked products are among the instruments being used.

BNP Paribas Wealth Management, for example, has seen stronger demand for fixed-income structures, particularly from mainland Chinese clients moving offshore in search of higher yields. At UBP, rate-linked callable range accruals and credit-linked notes have also featured prominently, as clients seek to lock in yields and diversify their credit exposure.

The trend is not limited to individual products or markets. In Taiwan, amid high valuations in AI and semiconductor stocks, structured notes are increasingly being used as an alternative to direct equity exposure.

Just as important is how private banks are positioning these products within client portfolios. 

RBC Wealth Management points to automation and greater client education as factors helping move structured products beyond tactical trades towards broader portfolio tools. Julius Baer is also seeing greater interest in bespoke and semi-custom solutions, including structures designed to serve as core portfolio components rather than short-term trades.

Taken together, these developments suggest that structured products are increasingly being considered as part of portfolio construction, diversification and risk management, not simply as a way to chase higher coupons.

The question is whether they are becoming a more permanent building block of Asian wealth portfolios, or whether demand will continue to rise and fall with market conditions.