Private bankers, you have worse coming. Don't fight it: Bloomberg Gadfly

SINGAPORE (Oct 3): The profession of providing tender loving care to the wealth of the world's rich people is heading for its annus horribilis. Private bankers in Asia could deal with 2017 -- and the headaches the year will bring -- by following one simple rule: Don't get out of bed.

Showing up on clients' doorsteps with another great investment idea will be a waste of everybody's time. In an age of stratospheric asset prices -- and subterranean yields -- assets under management are bound to grow more slowly than the gung-ho expectations on which some of these very expensive wealth-management businesses have been built.

By Oliver Wyman's estimates, there could be a US$15 trillion ($20.5 trillion) gap between the assets bankers are hoping to land globally by 2020, and what they might end up with. That's particularly a problem for Asia, where cost-to-income ratios for global wealth managers are off the charts:

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