When an asset begins to grow, almost everyone asks the same question with the wrong formula: “from how much money is private banking suitable for me?” It is a legitimate question, but incomplete, because it reduces the decision to an economic threshold when in reality it depends on Who decides what products they offer you, how that service is paid for and what happens to your assets the day you stop fitting into the standard file of an entity. At Norz Patrimonia, with more than 600 million euros in assets advised and thirty years of average experience of our team in the financial markets, we frequently see families who signed with the first entity that treated them well, without ever having compared the two architectures that were actually available to them.
Private banking, personal banking and independent advice: where the confusion begins
The first common mistake is treating “private banking” and “financial advisor” as synonyms for the same premium service. They are not. The private banking is a department within a bankdesigned for clients with a higher than average level of assets, who receive a dedicated manager and access to more sophisticated products than those of conventional banking. He independent financial adviceHowever, it is provided by a company other than the bank – in Spain, an EAF (Financial Advisory Company) registered and supervised by the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV) – whose function is to analyze and recommend, not to custody the money or sell you its own products.
This distinction is better understood if it is ordered by levels:
- Banking for individuals: day-to-day banking, designed for basic operations, not for wealth management.
- Personal banking: an intermediate level, with an assigned manager, aimed at clients with above-average savings capacity.
- Private banking: management of large assets within the structure of a bank, with more complex products and conditions.
Independent financial advice does not fit into this ladder because it is not a higher level of bank, but a different figure that can coexist with any of the three: You can have your money deposited in a bank and, at the same time, hire an external advisor to supervise and coordinate these positions with your own criteria.
The three differences that really decide which model is best
Once the initial misunderstanding has been overcome, there are three variables that explain the decision better than any wealth figure: who chooses the products, how the service is charged, and what part of your financial life is actually covered.
Who chooses the products they offer you
In private banking, the catalog usually combines the bank’s own product with third-party distribution agreements: this is what is known in the sector as limited or mixed product architecture. It does not imply bad faith, but it does imply an investment universe limited to what that entity has decided to market. In independent advice, the starting point is different: the advisor does not manufacture products, so his criteria for recommending one or another fund, manager or collective investment vehicle is based on a wider universewithout the pressure of placing the product of the month.
How the service is paid: retrocessions, fees or both
The MiFID II regulations require any entity that provides investment advice to explicitly declare whether its service is independent or non-independentbecause it depends on that label whether it can continue collecting rebates from the managers whose products it places, in addition to what it invoices you directly. It is one of the small prints that is least explained to the client and that most affects the advice they receive. When we work with clients who come from private banking, one of the first tasks is usually precisely that: uncover commissions and costs that were not clear in his previous extract, both visible and implicit.
What part of your assets is actually covered
Private banking tends to focus on the banking relationship: accounts, credit, investment and services associated with that specific entity. Independent advice, when well planned, goes one step further and seeks a global and integrated vision of the assets, also coordinating the banking, legal and fiscal aspects that are usually provided by third parties. It is precisely the approach behind our global wealth advisory model, designed so that no decision – an investment, an inheritance, a tax restructuring – is made without seeing the whole.
These three variables are better summarized together than separately:
| Aspect | Private banking | Independent financial advice |
|---|---|---|
| Primary relationship | Banking: accounts, credit, investment, bank services | Asset advice and coordination |
| Product universe | Own product and distribution agreements | More open, oriented to the suitability of the client |
| Usual remuneration | Implicit commissions, retrocessions and combined fees | Explicit fees, with less dependence on third-party incentives |
| Scope of service | Focused on the bank’s portfolio and products | Global vision: investment, taxation, succession and non-financial assets |
From what assets does each model compensate?
The figures circulating about “the threshold of private banking” are indicative and vary greatly depending on the entity: some set the cut-off at around 300,000 euros, others raise it above one million. This variability already says something important: wealth is only part of the equation. The complexity of your situation weighs as much or more than the total amount, and there are modest assets that are more complex to manage than others that are much larger.
Some situations that increase complexity—and therefore the need for more in-depth advice—regardless of the exact volume:
- Sale of a family business or sudden influx of relevant liquidity.
- Assets distributed among several banking entities without a consolidated vision.
- Important non-financial assets: real estate, business interests, works of art.
- Estate planning pending with several family members involved.
When any of these situations arise, it makes more sense to ask yourself what type of support you need than how much money you accumulate. Our individual asset advisory service starts precisely from there: portfolio profiles adapted to the risk and horizon of each client, not a single template per asset segment.
The uncomfortable question: is your advisor independent or does he just seem that way?
Almost no provider – bank or advisor – spontaneously defines itself as “non-independent”, although regulations require it to declare it clearly if a client asks. The most reliable way to check this is not the perception conveyed by the personal treatment, but three very specific questions: whether the service declares itself independent or not independent, how the total annual cost is calculated by adding everything together, and whether there are third-party incentives and how they are reported. You can also verify the registration of any entity directly in the official registry of EAFs of the CNMVsomething that is rarely offered proactively.
This question also has an unusual dimension in the sector: who has literally been on the other side of the table. In our team of financial advisors, one of the partners worked for years as a private banker in entities such as Andbank before joining this model, which allows us to understand first-hand how commercial incentives are built within a banking entity and what questions should be asked to uncover them.
When family assets ask for something more: the jump to the family office
There is a point at which neither private banking nor “pure” independent advice is sufficient: when wealth stops being a set of investments and becomes a family project with several generations involved. The sale of a company, the consolidation of financial and non-financial assets, or the need to plan an orderly succession are common signs that that time has arrived.
At Norz Patrimonia we understand the family office service as family governance, wealth strategy and intergenerational financial education, not just as a larger portfolio. It is, in practice, the natural evolution when neither the bank nor the individual advisor can no longer coordinate all the pieces of the legacy on their own.
How to decide in practice before signing with anyone
Beyond theory, the decision is best made with a short script of questions that you can take to any first meeting, whether with a bank or an independent advisor:
- Is the service you offer me declared independent or non-independent, and what does that mean for my remuneration?
- What is the total annual cost, adding visible and implicit commissions and retrocessions, if any?
- Are you going to analyze only my investment portfolio or also my real estate assets, my taxes and my succession?
- How do you consolidate information if I have assets in several entities?
- How often do you review the strategy and who will assist me if my current manager changes position?
Our team, made up of 21 professionals with an average experience of more than twenty years in markets and banking management, reviews these same points in the first meeting with each client, precisely because they are the questions that are least asked and the ones that most affect the long-term result.
There is no universally better model: private banking offers convenience and a complete banking relationship, while independent advice offers a more open view and less conditioned by the bank’s own product. What you can control is not deciding out of inertia. If you want to compare your asset situation with objective criteria before taking the step, you can ask it directly through our contact form and calmly assess which model really fits your assets.