Interview: Greg Kadet

Greg Kadet

Managing Director & Market Head – Greater Florida UBS Wealth Management USA

How have wealth management’s primary challenges changed with the pandemic?

There are several different types of firms that focus on specific fund or asset allocation model solutions. As you move through the industry’s various models, eventually you’ll arrive at advice-driven firms like UBS, where the adviser becomes the product. When you come to UBS, you’re coming to a comprehensive wealth management firm where we consult, create and offer solutions across almost all asset classes around the globe. Our industry challenges have not really changed during the pandemic – the primary issue continues to center around helping investors understand how to engage the financial markets via the many different financial firms’ solutions and capabilities. We still have to do a lot in terms of educating the public as to who we are, what we do and what they can expect from us.

What investment opportunities is your clientele looking for?

Technology, small midcap companies and emerging markets represent the lion’s share of investment appetite at present. Our clients are looking for advice, estate and financial planning, strategic planning and family planning. They’re primarily looking to ensure that they do not lose the wealth that they built, and if possible, to be able to grow their assets at a reasonable rate of return.

What is your outlook for Tampa Bay’s wealth management sector?

We just had another record year in the Tampa market, and our top priority is to retain our best advisers and attract top talent to UBS. Our success rides on our financial advisers’ abilities to lead clients and compete for new relationships. The best advisers are going to be able to overcome any environment to succeed. We are bullish about our sector, despite the fact that the world is getting more complicated. In reality, the more complicated financial markets become, the more we can differentiate ourselves within our industry and with clientele.

Tampa Bay’s professional sector has been instrumental in guiding businesses through PPP loans, digital adaptation, recruitment and other business-related issues during the pandemic.

( ) well-positioned to do,” said Karen Morinelli, office managing shareholder in Tampa for Ogletree Deakins.

Landscape On a global scale, the professional services sector is forecast to grow to $5.43 trillion in 2021 from $5.03 trillion in 2020, a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.9%, according to the report, Professional Services Global Market Report 2021: COVID 19 Impact and Recovery to 2030, by the Business Research Company.

The report said the growth is “mainly due to the companies rearranging their operations and recovering from the COVID-19 impact, which had earlier led to restrictive containment measures involving social distancing, remote working, and the closure of commercial activities that resulted in operational challenges. The market is expected to reach $7063.87 billion in 2025 at a CAGR of 7%.” North America is the largest region globally for the professional services market, accounting for 36% of the market in 2020, according to the report.

On a regional level, the Tampa MSA financial and professional services sector employs more than 342,000 people, with a five-year employment gain of 13.9% by the end of 2019, according to the Tampa Bay Economic Development Council (EDC). That makes the segment

Michael Lundy

Managing Partner – Older, Lundy, Alvarez & Koch

One of our top priorities is to fine-tune our service to make sure that the work we do for our clients is unrivaled. We work on this every day. We want the firm to keep growing in size in a steady and focused way. We have a strategic focus in areas that include commercial litigation and corporate transactional work, and we’re actively trying to seek out new opportunities in those areas. By the end of this year, I expect the firm to be bigger and better than it was at the end of 2020.

We have five offices in five locations: Tampa, Clearwater, Trinity, Wesley Chapel and Dade City. We are constantly looking to expand our reach throughout the Tampa Bay area and we are considering opening a new office in another nearby city in the not-so-distant future.

the fastest-growing sector in the region. The EDC also notes that employment in the finance sector remained strong in 2020 despite COVID-19, adding that 10% of the Fortune 50 and 9% of the Fortune 100 companies’ shared services operations are located in the Tampa Bay region.

Like nearly every aspect of the economy, the story of the professional services sector in the Tampa Bay region for 2020 and in 1Q21 is one that inevitably is about the opportunities, fallout and recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the fact that the professional services are uniquely suited to the type of remote work that became normalized over the course of the past year, it is also a sector that, in many ways, is reliant on the overall strength of the local economy. The positive news on that front, as shown in the University of South Florida (USF) Muma College of Business 2021 E-Insights Report on the Tampa Bay region, is that the area was relatively less impacted by the pandemic than the Miami and Orlando MSAs. The analysis indicated that “the Tampa Bay region is on the path of recovery.” That can only benefit the area’s professional services. “Tampa is the third-fastest growing city in Florida and the ninth-fastest growing city nationwide. The demographics are solid. Anytime you are in a service industry like we are, you want to