When Beirut’s wealth managers talk about the financial crisis, their language is decidedly emotional. They speak of the “support” they gave their clients as they watched their portfolios crumble. They say that their clients “suffered,” that they were “hurt” and “scarred.” Clients felt betrayed and blindsided, as “a major part of these losses were derived from risks that they were unaware of,” said Dory Hage, head of advisory and asset allocation at Banque Libano Francaise. Now that the bloodletting is mostly over, the worldwide economic recovery has created a unique financial climate in which wealth managers and their clients are feeding off the slowly healing global economy to mend their own fortunes even quicker. But while they may both be in a far happier place than they were a year ago, the travails they went through together have changed the nature of the game. According to consultancy firm Capgemini’s
