Best private bank: ING Private Banking & Wealth Management
ING Private Banking & Wealth Management translated strong momentum into measurable growth, helped by an increased focus on scalable advice and a broader investment menu.
In 2025, its fee income rose 20% year-on-year and net flows increased 139%, while the domestic client base expanded by nearly 18% to 25,705 clients, reflecting increased engagement from both long-standing and newly onboarded wealthy households.
A major driver was the build-out of ING’s private markets proposition in the Netherlands: an evergreen, semi-liquid platform designed to give private banking clients access to asset classes such as private equity, private credit and infrastructure through established alternative managers.
By reducing traditional frictions such as capital calls and long lock-ups, the platform moved private markets closer to a core allocation for a wider slice of clients and surpassed €1 billion in assets within just over a year, supported by nationwide client roadshows with external investment partners.
Alongside product expansion, ING leaned into transparency and digital self-service. Portfolio management clients gained tools such as portfolio X-Ray, which breaks down holdings across regions, sectors and instruments, while the bank expanded sustainability-focused reporting and impact visibility, including Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)-aligned portfolio insights available on request.
The push was underpinned by ING’s climate targets being validated by the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTI) in March 2025, bolstering the credibility of its responsible-investing narrative with Dutch private banking clients.
Finally, ING invested in long-term relationships through the Next Gen Academy, a structured programme for 18 to 36-year-olds from affluent families that combines wealth education, personal development and networking with specialist partners, helping the bank stay relevant as wealth transitions to a new generation.
Best for next-gen: ABN AMRO
ABN AMRO’s next-gen team doubled down on its effort to engage clients’ heirs early, using its Next and Connect propositions as the main on-ramps into private banking.
The bank’s wealth transfer push that began in July 2024 continued to run through the summer, using the consumer-facing message Do you think you know or do you actually know? to prompt future inheritors to start concrete conversations with their parents and the bank.
As part of the initiative, the private bank published the Future Gen Magazine, a mobile-friendly e-magazine built around client stories and practical guidance on inheritance and gifting, designed to meet the next generation in the formats they actually use.
On the service side, the Next proposition continued to offer younger clients a dedicated Next coach, who is reachable primarily through digital channels such as Teams and WhatsApp, while also drawing clients into peer networks via regular next-only events.
For older heirs, Connect positioned a named private banker as a guide through major life decisions, such as a second-home purchase, early retirement planning or education funding, supported by structured wealth-planning discussions.
The period also saw tangible new tools to make intergenerational planning more actionable. The bank rolled out the family plan in November 2024, a facilitated five-step process that produces linked financial plans for each family member, and in April 2025 refreshed its family mortgage to allow a larger loan-gift structure – up to 50% above the maximum mortgage – so grandparents can more effectively help their grandchildren compete in the Dutch housing market.
Best for alternative investments: ING Private Banking & Wealth Management
ING Private Banking & Wealth Management accelerated the build-out of its alternatives proposition by making private markets a more practical part of day-to-day portfolio construction.
The bank integrated private markets into advisory mandates and lowered the entry ticket to €125,000, opening strategies that were once largely institutional to a wider high-net-worth (HNW) audience. This broadened access showed up in flows: net new money (NNM) into the alternatives business rose from €200 million in 1H24 to €1.2 billion by 1H25, reflecting growing client appetite for private equity, private credit and infrastructure exposure.
Product depth expanded alongside distribution. The bank leveraged partnerships with large global alternative managers, giving clients access to institutional-style strategies via semi-liquid evergreen fund structures designed to reduce classic frictions such as capital calls and the J-curve effect.
ING’s offering was broadened with vehicles from Carlyle AlpInvest and HarbourVest, taking the line-up to nine private-markets funds and adding building blocks such as secondaries and co-investments.
To sustain adoption, ING paired product expansion with a structured education push in the Netherlands, including nationwide roadshows with external asset manager partners, client guides and explainers, and training for private bankers designed to improve suitability conversations and long-term allocation discipline.
Best for digital solutions: Van Lanschot Kempen
During the review period, Van Lanschot Kempen consolidated its position as the Netherlands’ foremost digital innovator in private banking, delivering a step‑change in client experience, operational excellence and adviser empowerment.
The firm advanced its flagship digital ecosystem with a major upgrade to Mijn Private Bank, creating a cross‑device environment on web, iOS and Android. The enhanced portal now provides secure omni‑channel access, enabling clients to manage their wealth with greater fluidity and autonomy.
Complementing this, the firm expanded its client centre into a comprehensive digital command hub, integrating portfolio data, transaction history, risk insights and relationship‑management intelligence into a single, real‑time interface.
Embedded artificial intelligence (AI) modules – including dynamic contact planning and the meeting preparation assistant – have materially increased adviser productivity and precision, enabling hyper‑personalised engagement at scale.
The proprietary AI assistant Leonardo has become a cornerstone of daily workflows with new capabilities such as memory, document upload and model selection. Adoption has been catalysed during the review period by the rapidly expanding AI champion network and a suite of practical learning formats that embed generative‑AI expertise throughout the organisation.
Together, these achievements position Van Lanschot Kempen as the undisputed Dutch leader in secure, human‑centred, digital wealth management.
Best for structured products: ABN AMRO
ABN AMRO has been focusing on how to move structured products from a niche allocation into a more core and deliberate part of its client proposition, combining breadth in traditional advisory mandates with a newer, more focused approach.
Alongside a wide structured products shelf, available within standard advisory portfolios, the bank has been developing a dedicated Structured Products Advice concept designed specifically for investors seeking downside protection. The strategy is built around structured investments offering at least 95% capital protection, aimed at helping cash-heavy or defensive clients put liquidity to work while still giving them a route into equity markets during periods of volatility.
Within the review period, the bank upgraded this concept by introducing thematic investing wrapped in the same capital-protected framework. Rather than offering structured products solely as market exposures, it began packaging them around themes relevant to clients, ranging from sustainability and artificial intelligence (AI) to gaming, as well as strategies linked to European security through exposure to defence companies. The shift was intended to make structured allocations feel more personalised and to create more frequent, practical touchpoints with clients through different product tenors. The first thematic campaign proved to be a major commercial milestone, generating more than $165 million in sales and attracting materially more client participation and volume than anticipated. Building on this momentum, the bank set out plans to roll out new thematic campaigns on a roughly quarterly cadence, each maintaining the 95% capital-protection design.
