Handelsbanken Wealth & Asset Management

Handelsbanken Wealth & Asset Management

The firm traces its origin to 1988, when it launched as Cripps Portfolio within Tunbridge Wells law firm Cripps Harries Hall, serving the investment needs of the firm's legal clients. Over the next quarter-century, it evolved into a standalone discretionary manager before being acquired by the UK subsidiary of Svenska Handelsbanken in 2013. That acquisition embedded the firm within one of Europe's most conservatively capitalized banking groups, giving it the balance-sheet permanence that many independent multi-family offices lack. Strategy blends a multi-asset core with satellite exposures. The firm constructs portfolios using global multi-asset funds and has recently introduced active ETFs to fine-tune the active-passive balance. Beyond public markets, the firm commits to private credit, infrastructure, real estate, and hedge funds, often via a fund-of-funds structure. Commodity and gold exposures serve as inflation hedges. Investment reaches across Europe and North America. The firm's Guernsey-domiciled Handelsbanken Alternatives Fund provides a dedicated vehicle for alternative allocations. Team size is not publicly disclosed, but the operation spans wealth planning, multi-generational estate advisory, and investment management from its London headquarters. In May 2026, the firm published an outlook emphasizing the market distortions created by AI-driven enthusiasm in US equities. It operates alongside several philanthropic foundations, including the Kiawah Trust and the Jan Wallander and Tom Hedelius Foundation, which share the parent group's Swedish legacy. The structural distinction is the hybrid architecture: a multi-family office investment engine that is wholly owned by a UK bank, which itself is a subsidiary of a Stockholm-listed banking group. This gives the firm access to institutional deal flow and credit lines that standalone multi-family offices cannot easily replicate, while still operating with a fiduciary, client-centric mandate. Its authorized corporate director subsidiary, Handelsbanken ACD Limited, oversees the fund range, reinforcing the regulated, institutional framework around the family-office service model.