When wealth begins to grow, one of the most common questions is at what level of assets it becomes worth accessing private banking. However, for Norz Patrimonia, that question starts from an incomplete premise, since it reduces the decision to an economic threshold when, in reality, other factors come into play such as who decides which products are recommended, how the service is compensated, or what happens when the wealth no longer fits the standard profile of a financial institution.
The firm notes that it is common to find families that accessed private banking without previously comparing the different advisory models available. “The decision should not be based solely on how much wealth you have, but on the type of guidance that each client really needs and on the independence with which investment decisions are made,” explains Laureano Gris, partner of Norz Patrimonia.
Differences in concepts and services
One of the main sources of confusion is to consider that private banking and independent financial advisory are two terms for describing the same service. However, they respond to very different models.
Private banking is a specialized division within a financial institution, aimed at clients with wealth above the average, who have a dedicated manager and access to a broader range of products than those offered by traditional banking. Independent financial advice, by contrast, is provided by a Financial Advisory Firm (EAF) registered and supervised by the regulatory authority, whose function is to analyze and recommend investment solutions without safeguarding the client’s assets or marketing its own products. In the United States context, this is best interpreted as independent financial advisory or an independent Registered Investment Adviser (RIA) that analyzes and recommends solutions while not selling in-house products or holding client assets.
The difference becomes even clearer when examining the different levels of service that the financial sector offers. While retail banking covers day-to-day operations and private banking adds a manager for clients with greater savings, private banking focuses on wealth management within the structure of a financial institution. The independent advisory model is not a higher rung within that structure, but a separate approach that can coexist with either, allowing the wealth to remain in one or more institutions while an external advisor coordinates the overall strategy.
According to Norz Patrimonia, there are three aspects that help explain the differences between the two models better than any asset figure:
- The first is who selects the investment products. In private banking, the catalog often blends the institution’s own products with third-party distribution agreements, which limits the investment universe to solutions marketed by the bank. In independent advisory, however, the adviser does not manufacture or distribute financial products, so their recommendations come from a broader universe oriented toward suitability for each client.
- The second aspect is the remuneration model. The MiFID II framework requires entities to explicitly disclose whether the advice they provide is independent or not, a distinction that determines whether they can receive payments from the asset managers whose products they market in addition to the fees paid by the client. For the firm, understanding the full set of costs, both visible and implicit, is essential before making any decision.
- The third differentiating element is the scope of service. While private banking typically concentrates on the banking relationship (accounts, financing, investments, and the bank’s own products), independent advisory seeks a holistic view of the wealth, coordinating financial, tax, legal, and succession matters so that each decision is made with the entire family wealth in mind.
Although private banking has traditionally been associated with very large fortunes, Norz Patrimonia notes that access thresholds vary significantly between institutions, typically ranging from about $1 million to well over $10 million. However, it believes that wealth complexity weighs as much as or more than asset volume.
The sale of a family business, a significant liquidity event, wealth spread across several institutions, the presence of non-financial assets such as real estate, equity stakes, or art, or the need to plan a family succession are some of the circumstances that justify more specialized wealth advisory, regardless of the total amount of wealth.
When that complexity increases, the advisory model also evolves. Norz Patrimonia believes there comes a point where wealth ceases to be merely an investment portfolio and becomes a family project that requires coordination across generations. It is then that the concept of a family office makes sense, integrating family governance, wealth strategy, and intergenerational financial education within a single service.
Before choosing between one model or another, the firm recommends asking some fundamental questions: whether the advisory is provided on an independent or non-independent basis, what is the total cost of the service including explicit and implicit fees, whether the analysis will cover only the financial portfolio or the entire wealth, how information will be consolidated when wealth is held in multiple institutions, and how frequently the wealth strategy will be reviewed.
For Laureano Gris, there is no universally superior model. “Private banking offers a complete banking relationship and high operational capacity, while independent advisory provides a broader, less product‑driven view from a particular institution. What truly matters is that the client understands how decisions are made, what costs they are really incurring, and what kind of guidance they need. Choosing by inertia alone is usually the biggest mistake,” says the Norz Patrimonia partner.
