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In this article, Alberto BORGIA (ESSEC Business School, Global Bachelor in Business Administration (GBBA), Exchange student, Fall 2025) shares his professional experience as a Wealth Management Intern at Nextam Partners.

About the company

During the summer between my second and third year of my Bachelor’s degree, I had the opportunity to join the Nextam Partners team for two months. Founded in 2001 by a group of professionals with decades of experience behind them and billions under management, Nextam is currently a family office that also provides financial advisory and wealth management services for Ultra High Net Worth Individuals and private foundations, with over 6 billion in assets under management. The company used to operate in the asset management sector as well, before being acquired by Banca Generali and then was partly taken back over by the founding partners, with regard to the segments that are still active.

Logo of NEXTAM.

Source: Nextam Partners.

My internship

I joined Nextam in June 2025 as a Summer Analyst in order to pursue my interest in wealth management and finally obtain a concrete experience that would allow me to learn first-hand both the more technical and the more practical concepts of the sector that are not covered in university lectures. and my role consisted mainly in supporting the various team members in their analysis and research functions for the development and modification of multi-asset portfolios through market screening, Bloomberg-based analysis and portfolio risk simulation using Windham.

My missions

During that months my duties as an intern were varied and I had the opportunity to work with almost all the member of the team.

I contributed to high-level asset allocation decisions as well as shorter-term portfolio repositioning, shaped by market movements, interest rates trends and specific requirement of each client. For example, since the clientele was made uo of foundations that required constant inflows of capital, I produced bond portfolios that would allow for a balanced and steady coupon return.

I also had the opportunity to participate on the buy side in IPOs of small and mid-cap companies, developing in-depth financial analyses for the firm’s clients. By taking part in various meetings with the sell side, I thus had the opportunity to fully understand how these types of transactions are really managed.

In addition to client-focused tasks, I took part in producing documents containing technical information about the asset in the portfolio, ensuring compliance with our customers’ regulatory requirements. This allowed me to work with assets of every type, understanding the risks and benefits of each of them.

Required skills and knowledge

The skills required were both technical and non-technical. It was necessary to have a deep knowledge of the various types of existing assets and of the concepts of strategic and tactical asset allocation, construction of multi asset portfolios, notion of portfolio theory and the ability to analyze and understand informational documents. However, the fundamental part was a strong familiarity with tools such as Excel and platforms like Bloomberg or FactSet, as well as internal ones. Bloomberg is the leading financial information platform in the world, allowing users to obtain any type of data on assets and companies in real time, while also integrating the opinions and forecasts of various financial analysts. FactSet offers a similar service; however, in my experience, it has mainly been used, together with internal datasets, for the analysis of asset data whose information is not available to all investors. It is therefore essential to understand how to make the best use of these platforms and the full range of their functionalities, including those features that are less well known to most analysts, in order to be as precise and reliable as possible. These tools formed the basis for a solid analysis and speed in completing tasks. An excellent knowledge of the regulations one works with is also necessary to ensure that one’s work is truly useful for the client and does not lead to further issues.

As for soft skills, it is instead extremely important to already possess and further improve one’s communication abilities, particularly with regard to simplifying complex concepts for the client, as well as precision and a high level of confidentiality. To be efficient you also need to be highly adaptable, adjusting your work to market conditions and changing client preferences. On a more operational level, strong organizational skills and effective time management are required to handle several tasks and projects at the same time to deliver results in a fast-paced environment.

The combination of these skills together with all the things that one will learn during working hours, makes for an excellent analyst in the Wealth Management sector.

What I learned

The “size” of the team and the firm was probably one of my main strokes of luck during the internship, in fact I had the opportunity to work closely with the partners and founders, learning as much as possible from people with decades of experience in the industry. The opportunity to be by their side taking notes during meeting or client appointments allowed me to find myself in contexts and situations that I would hardly have encountered in a large firm and from which I was able to truly understand and learn what it means to work in the Wealth Management industry and how to navigate it in order to become a recognized and respected professional. Understanding how a company operating in the sector today can be managed and improved, the tricks and the various “unwritten rules”, as well as its structure and organization, by exploring in depth the functions, objectives and issues that may rise in the back, middle and front office.

In addition to this I had the opportunity to delve into and revisit fundamental technical concepts, particularly with regard to the regulations one had to deal with and complex and uncommon financial valuation tools, understanding their real usefulness in various circumstances.

I strengthened my technical foundation in fund analysis by learning how to evaluate performance, risk exposure, and investment style. By studying portfolio allocations and reviewing managers’ communications, I became more confident in identifying the drivers behind results and in understanding the strategies applied across different products. Beyond improving my analytical approach, the experience gave me a clearer view of the mechanisms and interconnections that shape financial markets and guide investment decisions.

Also. I had the chance to further develop my skills with essential tools, such as excel, on a daily basis. I worked with data to structure and standardize information, run comparison across funds and benchmarks and support reporting activities. This helped me become quicker and more precise with formulas and efficient analytical workflows.

Overall, the internship expanded both my knowledge and my practical skill set, providing concrete exposure to the realities of operating in a complex and highly regulated industry.

Financial and business concepts related to my internship

I present below three financial concepts related to my internship: valuation multiples, Ultra-High-Net-Worth individual (UHNWI), and risk profiling & suitability.

Valuation multiples

The thing I worked on the most during the internship were valuation multiples, for the valuation of a company and its peers it is essential to be able to build them and understand them as well as possible, adapting to every context, using the right ones for each type of analysis and market under review. The multiples I came across most often are also the ones most widely used by all analysts in almost every area of finance, P/E and EV/EBITDA. As mentioned before, both are used for valuation and for estimating a company’s implied value, particularly in relation to its peers. However, EV/EBITDA values the company from an operating perspective before interest, depreciation and amortization and taxes, allowing companies with different capital structures to be compared. The P/E is used to understand whether the stock is overpriced or not relative to expected earnings and growth. They do, however, have some drawbacks: P/E is affected by accounting policies and leverage while EV/EBITDA can be misleading if EBITDA does not reflect capex or margin quality.

Ultra-High-Net-Worth Individual (UHNWI)

Investors are generally divided into various categories based on their investment capacity and each of these requires specific services. First, we find the mass affluent segment; this category represents a large portion of the population with significant investment capacity, controlling a substantial share of global wealth. Individuals belonging to this category have investable assets exceeding USD 100 k but below USD 1 million and they exhibit more advanced needs compared to traditional retail investors. According to the UBS Global Wealth Report 2024, this individuals represent a large and expanding segment of the global population, benefiting from rising incomes and asset appreciation. While precise figures vary by region, this group accounts for a significant share of global investable wealth and represents a key growth driver for wealth management services. Subsequently, we can find High Net Worth Individuals, subjects with assets exceeding USD 1 million, who are among the main clients of private banking and investment advisory services. According to Capgemini researcher the global population of this category is increasing each year, reaching 23 million individuals with a total wealth of 86 trillion. Individuals with an investment capacity above 30 million euros fall within the category of Ultra-High-Net-Worth Individuals. Despite been less than 1 million this fraction control an extremely high amount of the global wealth and that’s why this is the segment that wealth management refers to, providing complex and tailored services. Usually, these individuals do not limit themselves to needing simple portfolio management, but rather require services dedicated to them, such as estate planning, tax optimization and long-term wealth protection.

Risk profiling & suitability

In order for the client’s portfolio asset allocation to be as suitable as possible, it is necessary to assess the client’s risk profile and the suitability of the investments, with the aim of ensuring that the assets and the portfolio are consistent with the client’s objectives, time horizon, and risk aversion. To obtain the necessary information, firms are required to use a set of procedures known as the “Know Your Customer” (KYC) process, which make it possible to understand the client’s identity, personal and financial situation, as well as the origin of the funds and the client’s objectives. More broadly, the KYC process is a regulatory requirement designed to ensure transparency and integrity within the financial system. It is mandatory by law, because by requiring firms to verify clients’ identities and assess their financial backgrounds, KYC procedures can help prevent money laundering, terrorist financing and other types of illicit activities. Once the necessary information has been obtained, through internal tools the team is able to calculate the most efficient way to allocate the available resources. Such an assessment must then be updated continuously based on the individual’s needs and the various changes in their profile.

Why should I be interested in this post?

This post may be useful for anyone who wants to pursue a career in the wealth management sector or simply understand its structure. Today and in the near future, private banking represents a huge and constantly growing sector, capable of offering great opportunities to anyone who wants to dive into it. Just in Europe assets under management reach about €32.7 trillion by late 2024, supported by both market performances and new money inflows. This growth is also fueled by structural trends such as the constant rising share of passive investing and the increasing access to the private markets.

Useful resources

Nextam Partners S.I.M.

Klaus P. (2022) What matters most to ultra-high-net-worth individuals? Exploring the UHNWI luxury customer experience (ULCX) Journal of Product & Brand Management, 31(3):368-376.

Cap Gemini (2025) World Wealth Report

Altrata (2024) World Ultra Wealth Report 2024

Douglas Elliman (2024) 2024 Wealth Report: Global Number of Ultra-High-Net-Worth Individuals Up 4.2% in 2023

EY (2024) 2024 EY Global Wealth Management Industry Report

Pimco Education Understanding Asset Allocation and its Potential Benefits

About the author

The article was written in December 2025 by Alberto BORGIA (ESSEC Business School, Global Bachelor in Business Administration (GBBA), Exchange student, Fall 2025).

▶ Read all articles by Alberto BORGIA.

My Experience as a Wealth Management Intern at Nextam Partners