Redefining retirement for HNWs

COUTT’S AND NATWEST

 
 

NatWest Group faced a significant challenge in meeting the evolving retirement needs of its high-net-worth (HNW) and ultra-high-net-worth (UHNW) clients and their families. The organisation’s portfolio of retirement propositions had become fragmented and inconsistent, making it difficult to deliver a coherent, compelling offering to this discerning audience. With increasing competition from both traditional financial services providers and emerging lifestyle-driven wealth management brands, there was a clear need to redefine and strengthen the proposition—particularly for Coutts, NatWest Group’s flagship private banking brand.

To address this, we were tasked with segmenting the HNW market, redesigning NatWest Group’s retirement proposition portfolio, refining the Coutts value proposition, and creating a roadmap of innovative services that would differentiate the brand and open up new opportunities for growth and brand extension.

Leading a team of four service designers and strategists, we undertook an extensive discovery and design process, which included:

  • Engaging 30 subject matter experts through a series of interviews and collaborative workshops

  • Facilitating over 10 workshops, including two full-day, in-person sessions to deep dive into key areas

  • Conducting 28 one-to-one in-depth interviews with a diverse range of affluent and private clients, as well as non-clients

  • Holding additional interviews with a variety of inheritors to understand intergenerational wealth dynamics

  • Gathering insights from over 43 hours of conversations with HNW individuals and stakeholders

Key Insights:

  • HNW clients viewed retirement not as a singular financial milestone but as a holistic life stage that integrates personal aspirations, family legacies, lifestyle ambitions, and social impact.

  • Clients were looking for solutions that combined traditional financial management with broader services encompassing family planning, wellness, and purposeful living.

  • There was a strong appetite for more dynamic, flexible propositions that supported evolving needs—rather than rigid, transactional financial products.

Armed with these insights, we developed a bold new portfolio of retirement propositions. The centrepiece was a comprehensive, future-facing offering for Coutts that brought together personal finance management, family and estate planning, innovative lifestyle services, and social impact solutions—presented as an integrated, holistic retirement experience rather than a collection of financial products.

Alongside the proposition, we delivered:

  • A full suite of personas and jobs-to-be-done aligned to each of the four key propositional areas

  • A robust set of service and product ideas that repositioned the offering as a lifestyle service as much as a financial one

We also ran a parallel innovation workstream exploring opportunities to extend the Coutts brand into new horizontal markets and growth areas. Concepts included real estate ventures, a subscription-based retirement service, and a pioneering wealth management product that integrated personal and family health data—sourced from smartwatches and wearables—to optimise financial and estate planning in line with evolving wellbeing needs.

The redefined portfolio and future-facing innovations offered NatWest Group and Coutts several key advantages:

  • Stronger Market Differentiation: The new propositions helped reposition Coutts as a trailblazer in the HNW retirement space, going beyond traditional wealth management to address broader lifestyle and legacy needs.

  • Greater Client Engagement: By focusing on the real-world aspirations and concerns of affluent clients, the refreshed offering created more relevant and meaningful engagement opportunities.

  • Opportunities for Brand Extension: The innovation roadmap identified clear pathways to expand the Coutts brand into adjacent markets, opening up new revenue streams and reinforcing its leadership in premium financial and lifestyle services.

  • Enhanced Strategic Clarity: The structured portfolio, underpinned by rich customer insight and validated market opportunities, provided a clear direction for future product development and service evolution.

In summary, our work redefined what retirement can mean for HNW individuals and their families—positioning NatWest Group and Coutts to offer an integrated, future-ready experience that balances financial security, family legacy, personal fulfilment, and social contribution.

LEADERSHIP | STRATEGY | RESEARCH | PROPOSITION DESIGN | INNOVATION

Agency: Nile | Work: Live Project

 

+44 7788 269 242  joseph@planningandstrategy.com