Silver Spotlight: Urs Brutsch On Wealth Management And Football Management

Legacy
20 Feb 2024
2 months ago
Kannan Chandran

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How do silvers plan their retirement strategy? Can the glory days of football in Singapore return? All these and more discussed with Urs Brutsch, Founder of HP Wealth Management who has made Singapore his home since 1986.

It started out as a one-year internship for the young Urs Brutsch, but turned out into a 37-year — and counting — adventure.

Urs joined a Swiss bank as an apprentice and eagerly accepted the chance to be in Singapore for a year’s training, in 1986.

But life took an unexpected series of turns and he found himself working with different banks — ABN AMRO, Credit Suisse, Clariden Leu — getting married, adopting children and making Singapore home.

He set up his own business, HP Wealth Management in 2009 with former Clariden Leu colleague, Michael Foo.

Urs is also a keen football fan, who is still playing into his 60s, and also coaches, referees and manages the German All Stars Football Club.

In this Silver Spotlight interview with SilverStreak, he talks about the rise of wealth in Asia, managing your wealth, retirement, the new trends in finance, and, of course, football.

Making Singapore Home

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While many silvers are into their retirement plans by the time they are in their 60s, Urs is keen on continuing his business and playing football.

I don't have a retirement plan because I have my own business. So I think I'm in a lucky position, a fortunate position. I don't have to plan for an exact date when I take retirement. So I think that makes it a little bit easier perhaps to grow older,

"I've done that for the last 40 years almost, and it's something which you can scale down. I mean, now I have maybe more clients than I will have in 5 years and even less in 10 years, perhaps. So I bring it down slowly, but I don't think I want to get out completely. I think I would be probably missing it too much and be quite bored."

Urs’ life is centred on business, football and the family. The kids are grown up, so it’s a bit of an empty nest. The business keeps humming along.

“Football. At some point you have to slow down. You can only play until a certain age, Urs acknowledges.

"You can referee, until a certain age. You can always coach and you can always watch games. But I think at some point you have to change your priorities when it comes to football."

How To Make Football Popular In Singapore

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Urs started playing football when he was 8 years old, and never stopped.

“Today, I play for the veterans. I help to coach one of the teams. I run a club with five teams, The German All-Stars. I referee in the local amateur league and I watch a lot of football and my wife says a bit too much. But so football is a very important part of my life and I think it’s a great balance to the business, really.

“I play twice a week probably, and do some other sports on the side, but it really allows me to, I think, balance the stress of the business; keep a healthy lifestyle.”

While his game continues to thrive, the same can’t be said for football in Singapore. Football has been on the decline for some decades now, caught up in a downward spiral at the hands of curious administration decisions, politics and the resulting weakening support.

Sadly, football is not important enough in Singapore as a whole. As a society. It's a side note,

“In the ‘90s when Singapore was in the Malaysia Cup, there would be 50,000 people at the National Stadium. Today, you get barely 3,000 to watch them play against Guam, at Jalan Besar.

“I just think sports is not important enough in Singapore for the government.

“Singaporeans love football. I’m convinced if there’s a good product in Singapore, people will go and watch it in the stadium.”

Urs talks about the way forward for Singapore football.

Where Should Silvers Place Their Money?

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The closer you get to retirement, the less risk you take,

"If you're approaching 60, with a few more years to go, then you probably want to shift your risk away from equity more to fixed income to generate steady returns for you that you can probably live off, ideally after your retirement. So the closer you get to retirement, the less risk you will take you with your investments. And NO leverage.”

Urs has advice for those who may be caught out by tough times or bad investments and are scrambling to make enough for their retirement.

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The Editorial Consultant of SilverSteak has enjoyed a journey that has taken him from print to digital, and words to visuals. Every rock tells a story and under every rock is a deeper narrative.

Tags: financial, planning, retirement, silverspotlight, sport, wellbeing

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