UBS today announced that it has established a KeyClient Group in Canada dedicated to serving the firm’s ultra high net worth clients.

An initial group of four wealth management professionals and related service personnel will offer a comprehensive suite of wealth management services to ultra high net worth clients from UBS’s Canadian offices.

The KeyClient initiative was launched by UBS in January 2003 to deliver a consistent and pro-active approach towards the wealthiest individuals and families around the world. Only markets where UBS has a well-established private banking model will a KeyClient Group be established, and Canada has been selected as one of those markets. UBS has had a private banking operation in Canada for more than 50 years.

“We’ve been serving people around the world with $50 million or more in financial assets for many years,” says Grant Rasmussen who is Head of Wealth Management in Canada. “You really do need a focused strategy for this market.”

The KeyClient Group is designed for the more than 3,000 families in Canada who seek sophisticated services over a wide range of categories, such as aircraft financing, wine banking and art banking. The KeyClient Group also develops investment strategies that can involve single stock lending, currency solutions and active capital preservation. As these clients are similar to institutions in size, they are also able to tap into UBS Investment Bank expertise for the development of structured products, merger & acquisition services, and prime brokerage. With their international interests, these clients can also have their dealings managed in as many as 23 currencies.

The Group will be headed by Sam Sivarajan who has been responsible for founding this KeyClient group in Canada. Sam will be joined by Wolfgang Harder in Vancouver, as well as Erika Hofer and O.J. Tuters in Toronto.

“With today’s global financial markets ultra high net worth clients do indeed have more complex and integrated wealth management needs than other wealthy people,” said Sam Sivarajan. “As there are different needs for people with $100,000 to invest versus those with $1 million so are there different needs for someone with $10 million versus $100 million. As you can imagine, the sophistication of the solutions differs in the same manner.”