SCHO Private Wealth: Transforming Brand Strategy for Impact-Oriented Wealth Management

SCHO Private Wealth is a team of next-era financial professionals operating within Merrill Lynch's private wealth group. They specialize in challenging the status quo by providing financial advisory services to ultra-high-net-worth individuals, with a focus on impact-oriented wealth management strategies.

SCHO was established in 2021 by Kanwar Singh, who leveraged his 17 years of expertise in the industry to reimagine how money moves through the world. Although Kanwar was clear about the work his team is meant to do in the world, on the surface they were hard to distinguish from other high net worth advisors. As a result, SCHO was not bringing in the kinds of clients they feel most called to serve—-clients who want to create conscious momentum with their money and tip the scale toward a more equitable society. 

A two-time Forbes-SHOOK Best-in-State Wealth Advisor, Kanwar knew the disconnect between SCHO’s existing and ideal client base wasn’t coming from a lack of expertise or competence. It was coming from something so simple: an outdated narrative about the work SCHO can do for ultra-high-net-worth clients.  

SCHO felt a deep disconnect when trying to market to their ideal clients.
Kanwar’s ultimate goal when he established SCHO was to bring a sense of purpose to his clients’ profits. He believes wealth is synonymous with power, and challenges clients to use their wealth as a force of good to impact their communities, society, and future generations. Kanwar knew there were people out there who wanted to use their wealth as a force for good, which is why he felt so deeply the disconnect SCHO was experiencing when it came to attracting their ideal clientele. 

Kanwar discovered Fearless Foundry through a referral from a satisfied client—we helped him uncover that SCHO was lacking a cohesive organizational narrative and brand strategy to help them attract and serve a new target audience effectively. Our alignment of values made for a fantastic connection. In a recent call Kanwar mentioned,“Working with Fearless reinforced the importance of being in a space of psychological safety. We have an alignment of values which means I can show up as my fullest self as we co-create our brand.” 

Fearless Foundry collaborated with Kanwar and his team to align the company’s mission, vision and values. 
We asked each team member to share their motivations for joining SCHO, their personal values, and how these aligned with the company's mission. It became clear early on that SCHO simply didn’t have clarity on a mission statement, vision, values, and ideal client profile and as a result, when clients were visiting the SCHO website, they weren’t seeing the impact investment advisors they were searching for, even though that’s exactly what SCHO offers.

A new brand strategy made the SCHO team confident in their ability to attract ideal clients.
After months of close collaboration, a new brand strategy has come to life. Their comprehensive strategy highlights ten pillars of the brand, including the brand idea, mission statement, elevator pitch, and core values. We also conducted a training session for the SCHO team to ensure they collectively understood their new brand narrative and the kinds of messaging they can be sharing to start calling in a new caliber of clients.

Since implementing the new brand strategy, SCHO is ready to attract clients who truly align with their impact-oriented wealth management approach. Their new brand strategy was used by the Fearless Foundry team to also create new website copy, client sales presentations, and team bios that reflect the values and vision of the team. As a result, SCHO has been able to increase their storytelling efforts on social media platforms and have even gained press attention due to their unique narrative in the wealth management industry. 

“Fearless reminds me of the strategy we’ve collectively agreed to pursue and helps me stay the course by showing me the data that says we’re going in the right direction.”
-Kanwar Singh 

They feel grateful for the clarity and unity achieved through the brand strategy process, and have more confidence in SCHO’s ability to serve the most diverse wealth creators in the world.

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