Markets have had a wild ride in 2025. From whipsawing tech stocks to near-daily US tariff rule changes, the turmoil across a host of asset classes has proved tricky to navigate.
Few are better equipped to ride out the storm than Britain’s super-rich, who have armies of advisers and wealth managers pouring over the data to point them in the right direction. But are they being told to sell out their positions and retreat to safe havens?
“There’s a lot of talk about it but a lot of our clients haven’t actually done that much, it’s more questions as opposed to actions,” said Edmund Shing, chief investment officer at BNP Paribas Wealth Management.
“Financial markets globally have been kind to investors despite the perceived headline volatility. Yes there’s been a lot of intra-year volatility but net most clients have done well.”
Xian Chan, Head of Premier Wealth at HSBC UK, who recently opened a new centre in St James’s, said wealth managers have not been advising clients to move their investments around despite all the market turmoil.
“The key message here is just staying calm,” Chan said.
“Despite all the volatility and the movement and the noise, it’s important to remind ourselves that markets are still comfortably up. If you sell out at the bottom it’s much harder to climb back.”
How will Europe benefit from US turmoil?
Many investors piled into European equities after the US selloff, with defence or defence-adjacent firms like BAE, Rolls-Royce and Babcock among the biggest beneficiaries, all of whom are up by more than 50 per cent this year. But is this a temporary move or part of something more permanent?
BNP’s Shing said Trump-led turmoil could mark the beginning of a longer-term trend of high net worth individuals paring back their exposure to the US.
“Will US equity markets continue to dominate in the way they have over the last 10 years…I think the answer is probably a lot less,” Shing said.
“You could say after 10 years of US outperformance that’s quite typical [but] that doesn’t make it a trend.
“We don’t know if we’re in a new trend yet, but I would suspect that a lot of the underlying drivers of this US exceptionalism around the technology sector, those drivers are starting to ease and it’s less obvious if they can continue to drive US stock outperformance in the way that they have for the last 10 years.
“So I would think there’s a rebalancing happening – I think we’re in the early days of it.”
But Gene Salerno, Chief Investment Officer Union Bancaire Privée UK, disagreed.
“If you look at traditional valuation measures the UK and Europe are far more attractive than the US – the trouble is you’re just not seeing earnings growth out of Europe,” Salerno said.
“Big tech is still where earnings growth is coming from within US equities. On top of that you’ve had the weakening of the US dollar which ought to lead to more flattering year-on-year earnings figures for US companies versus those that report in euros of sterling.
“We’ve had this period where Europe was favoured – now it’s probably going to swing back again, partly on this reality, partly on the currency changes.”
According to Chan, structured products – a carefully-designed basket of assets that are highly sensitive to market moves – have proved more attractive.
“When you see volatility in markets rise, it’s a really interesting environment to look at things like structured products where you can take advantage of the high market volatility to get more attractive rates of return on the instrument,” he said.
“I stress it’s not for everyone, it has to be right but the opportunity to take advantage of some of the return opportunities that you see coming out of the more volatile markets is something that’s quite attractive to more sophisticated investors.”
Private market pile-in
For those a little less keen to be exposed to big day-to-day market moves, private markets have become an attractive solution, Salerno said.
“To the degree it offers something a little bit different to what clients have in their portfolios, they’re looking at it to diversify further along the edges,” he said.
“There isn’t the same sort of daily price transparency so you shouldn’t be misled by that as if that means they’re less volatile but at the same time there are less pressures for the owners of those assets to respond to public markets type activity.
“So there’s an allure to that and the idea that companies can be managed in a slightly different way.”
Dependable real assets are always a reliable place to park your wealth during turbulent times, Shing said.
“Alternatives such as commodities have done well, with precious metals leading the charge.
“I think that’s partly a diversification trade, partly a hedge against the dollar, and partly a bit of a safe haven trade at a time of uncertainty.”
Super-rich exodus?
Amid a flurry of tax hikes, the scrapping of non-dom status and chatter about a wealth tax, there’s also been growing speculation that more and more super-rich investors are leaving the UK. But how acute is the situation?
Shing said there had been widespread conversation among high net worth individuals about the tax burden in Britain, but cautioned that comparatively few had left the UK so far.
“There is always a lot of talk and a lot of thinking [but] it takes a lot to make people move,” Shing said.
“For those who are entrepreneurs there’s an extra element…not just personal taxation but the treatment of their businesses, particularly thinking about future capital gains or inheritance tax.
“It’s a complex question and not just around finance, it’s a personal choice as well. Wealthy families do not jump into it lightly.”
Salerno echoed Shing’s views. “We haven’t really seen a big exodus in terms of our clients,” he said.
“A lot of people talk about it but at the end of the day leaving London permanently and for real is quite a significant life change that when it comes to it, might not make sense for them.”