For years, Southeast Asia’s wealth management landscape was defined by regional giants with broad multi-market footprints, while local players were often left competing in lower-margin, transactional segments.

That hierarchy is now being challenged. In Thailand, Kiatnakin Phatra Securities (KKPS) has positioned itself at the centre of this shift, moving away from a long-standing “product-pushing” legacy toward building more sophisticated, high-conviction portfolio strategies.

“Last year, we delivered strong performance with revenue growth approximately 25%, and this is well above the trend, as we usually see a 15% growth on average,” said Narit Kosalathip, head of the wealth management group at KKPS, adding that growth was achieved despite a multi-year downtrend in domestic equities.

Much of this momentum is driven by deeper wallet share from existing clients rather than new acquisitions, with around 80% of new business coming via referrals — a sign of strong client satisfaction and relationship-led growth, Kosalathip told Asian Private Banker.

The firm segments clients into affluent and high-net-worth categories, using a 50 million Thai Baht (US$1.5 million) threshold, while avoiding forced upgrades and prioritising continuity with existing relationship managers.

At the same time, KKPS is increasingly integrating its wealth, investment banking, and corporate banking capabilities to serve ultra-high-net-worth clients in a more coordinated way, supporting needs ranging from IPOs and M&A to liquidity solutions across both personal and business contexts.

Doubling DPM penetration

A key pillar of this advisory-led shift is the expansion of discretionary portfolio management (DPM), which KKPS sees as a tool to deepen and institutionalise client relationships rather than just an added service.

DPM penetration currently sits at around 5% to 6%, with Kosalathip targeting a rise to 10% by year-end and a longer-term range of 10% to 15% over the next few years — bringing the firm closer to more established regional peers.

The push comes as some clients increasingly recognise the benefits of systematic investing and diversification in volatile markets, though Kosalathip notes that DPM is still a relatively new concept in the local market.

“We have invested heavily in ensuring that our RMs deeply understand the investment philosophy and the risk management framework behind DPM. Equally important is their ability to clearly articulate the differentiated value that our Goldman Sachs Asset Management (Goldman Sachs AM) partnership brings in delivering institutional solutions,” said Kosalathip.

The decision to partner with Goldman Sachs Asset Management from an initial shortlist of six firms was driven by its strong brand appeal among HNW clients, disciplined risk-focused investment philosophy, and commitment to open architecture.

Through GSAM’s External Investing Group, KKPS reinforces its product-neutral approach, with around 90% of portfolios allocated to third-party funds, ensuring selections are driven by merit rather than in-house bias. “Driving DPM adoption is not about target setting, but building convictions across sales to clients,” he added. 

While the firm is working to broaden access to DPM, he noted that “accessibility” still depends on each bank’s structure. He drew a distinction between KKPS’s bespoke mandate model and the mutual fund-based approaches used by some local peers through global partnerships.

Local banks like KBank and SCB often package their partnerships into a mutual fund structure. This allows for extremely low entry points — some are as low as 2,000 Baht, according to an industry source. 

Meanwhile, KKPS positions its DPM for a higher-tier segment, using a private fund licence to deliver tailored mandates. This allows clients to choose between active or passive styles, as well as onshore or offshore booking options for tax efficiency and conviction alignment.

“For us, we may be the only one who offered the value proposition of this multi-asset collaboration as a DPM [rather than a retail mutual fund offering],” Kosalathip continued.

He added that the private fund license provides KKPS with two key advantages over the mutual fund structures used by competitors: pricing flexibility and transparency. 

What’s next?

However, scaling the wealth business further requires a more sophisticated advisory workforce — a challenge KKPS is addressing by rethinking how it builds talent.

Instead of relying heavily on external hiring, the firm is taking a more conservative approach focused on developing internal talent.

With experienced hires in short supply, KKPS has shifted toward a strong “homegrown” model, training associate relationship managers (RMs) into full RMs. This internal pipeline now accounts for around 50% of new RM appointments, Kosalathip said, providing a clearer and more structured career progression within the firm.