Appointed Group CEO of Delen Private Bank in 2022, Michel Buysschaert brings a background in corporate banking, M&A and private banking at Banque Internationale à Luxembourg. After driving strong organic growth as CEO of Van Lanschot Belgium, he was approached by the Delen family to lead a bank known for its radically simple, discretionary-only model.

Sylvain Barrette: How do you adapt your value proposition for international and sophisticated clients in markets like Luxembourg without diluting your DNA?

Michel Buysschaert: We have not changed our approach. The bank is characterised by radical simplicity, applied consistently across all jurisdictions. Our core philosophy is discretionary management through patrimonial funds. We offer only one service and we stick to it.

If a client wants something else, we tell them they might be better served elsewhere. I compare it to a “three-star restaurant” that has only one menu. We believe quality of service and proximity to the client are more important than being mediocre at many things. We are willing to say “no” to services we don’t master to ensure long-term relationships based on what we do best.

Many active funds underperform their benchmarks over ten years. How do you justify your active management?

It starts with the choice of benchmark. For example, the MSCI World is now over 70% weighted toward the US. While the US has outperformed Europe over the last decade, our clients are European with costs in euros.

In 2025, a weakening dollar had a devastating impact on returns when translated back into euros. Our internal benchmark is 40/40/15/5 (40% US, 40% Europe, 15% Emerging Markets, and 5% Japan). We use dynamic asset allocation and have been overweight in the US (currently at 56% but went up to 65%) for years.

Over ten years, the performance of our 'full equity D100H' is largely in line with our internal benchmark. We have also performed similarly against the MSCI All Country — a more relevant global index — but underperformed the MSCI World, which we consider a ‘dangerous’ reference for a Europe-based client.

Furthermore, our fee covers far more than portfolio management. It includes a digital platform and the support of 40 estate planning specialists who help families structure wealth transfer to the next generation. Going through lawyers to handle those operations is costly. A core service is access to a financial psychologist at any time, helping clients avoid emotional overreactions during periods of market volatility.

Our target clients are those who lack the time, knowledge, or desire to manage their money and seek a long-term partner they can trust.

Why do you avoid complex structures like Luxembourg Raifs or private equity and private credit funds?

We are very clear about this: if a client wants to trade themselves or seek illiquid solutions like real estate or private equity, we are not the right bank for them. We focus on liquid, listed assets where a client can sell and get their cash the next day. We avoid products where capital is locked up for five or ten years.

Regarding private credit, we have seen recent disasters where retail investors were offered quarterly “exit doors,” but when everyone tried to leave at once, “gates” were applied, and the doors were effectively closed. This creates significant liquidity and reputational risk. In private equity, we don’t like the lack of control. Giving money to a manager is like signing a “blank cheque” and hoping for the best in ten years.

We prefer to be in charge, deciding exactly which individual equities and bonds (like Nvidia, or Microsoft, or LVMH) go into our funds so we can explain the underlying assets to our clients at any time.

We are not a one-stop shop. There are very, very few people — I don’t know any — who are truly excellent at it across all the services.

You are not describing yourself as a one-stop shop. Are you nevertheless a conductor orchestrating the different experts?

We are currently considering evolving our approach slightly for larger clients. What we would like is to position ourselves more as a consolidator of financial assets, enabling us to provide a comprehensive risk assessment of the client’s overall wealth. This would move us toward a “light” family office offering — one that we believe could gradually be developed further for clients with assets exceeding €10m.

According to the ABBL, 80% of heirs say they will change banks within two years of receiving their inheritance. What are you doing to retain these heirs, particularly as Generation Z behaves differently?

We focus on the “Now-gen” (clients around age 45) and the “Next-gen” (those around age 25). We use our software to build a full genealogical tree of our clients. By the time an inheritance occurs, we already have an established relationship with the next generation. We also host the “Delen Academy” to provide financial, fiscal, and economic education to the younger generation, as these topics are often neglected in schools.

You mentioned your “Family and Patrimony” software. What makes it a unique selling proposition?

It is an in-house developed tool that provides a digital inventory of a client’s global assets and their legal ownership. This allows us to instantly simulate inheritance tax exposure—for example, showing a client exactly what their spouse or children would pay in taxes tomorrow in the event of death. It also simulates financial independence.

We can show a 65-year-old if their wealth will last until age 95. This is crucial for planning donations; we must sometimes tell clients “not to give too quickly” to their children if it might compromise their own financial security in old age.

What is your perspective on regulation?

Surprisingly, we see the regulator as an ally and a boost to our business. Regulatory pressure toward transparency and suitability aligns perfectly with our discretionary-only model. By making complex advisory or “execution only” services more difficult to implement, the regulator has effectively pushed clients toward discretionary management.

How do you attract talent in a competitive market like Luxembourg?

We invest heavily in human resources, hiring 70 to 80 people a year across the group in all activities. We offer a warm, family-oriented environment and a flat management structure. Neither I nor the other directors have private offices; we sit on the open platform with the bankers and developers to ensure proximity and accessibility.

Most notably, we do not pay bonuses. In the financial world, bonuses often create perverse incentives, encouraging competition for prospects rather than collaboration. By removing bonuses, we foster a team spirit where bankers collaborate for the client’s benefit. We look for five values: passion, respect, ambition, team, and transparency.

How is AI impacting your strategy?

We view AI as a massive opportunity for a 50% productivity boost rather than a threat. We have created an AI innovation hub to automate administrative tasks. For example, AI now generates our meeting reports with clients. This could allow relationship managers to increase daily client meetings from two to three without sacrificing quality.

What are your plans for future expansion, specifically in Luxembourg?

Our priority is always organic growth, but we are open to M&A in the Luxembourg area. We are looking for “bolt-on” acquisitions of healthy, family-oriented firms with business models similar to ours. We prefer it when the entrepreneurs stay on. An example is the Havaux family in Luxembourg; they sold their firm to us in 2000, and 23 years later, members of the family (René, Philippe and Olivier) were still in key leadership roles because they found our entrepreneurial spirit so engaging.

We want to continue building a community of clients around our agencies, like our one on Route d’Arlon, through events in art and sport.

Delen Private Bank

Founded in 1936 by André Delen, the bank has evolved from a small stockbroking firm into a major international private banking group. Its modern trajectory began in 1973 when André’s son, Jacques Delen, joined a team of just four people. In Belgium alone, the bank has grown from 80 people and €4bn in assets in 2000 to over 700 people (1,200 staff at the group level) and €54bn by 2025.

The bank’s international footprint currently covers Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands. Growth has been particularly aggressive in the Netherlands, where the bank has completed six acquisitions since 2019.