The Art of Personalization: How Southeast Builds Loyalty Among the Region's Major Business Families.

Redefine business success with a hyper-personalized approach that delivers true added value. In an exclusive interview with Zonamerica, the CEO traces the evolution of a company that chose to maintain its scale to ensure its independence and to focus on relationships and tailor-made solutions in an era of algorithmic standardization.

The world of wealth management is undergoing a structural paradigm shift. In a regional landscape marked by volatility, regulatory shifts, and uncertainty, providing tailored value has replaced the buying and selling of assets to become the true means of wealth protection for large business families. Álex Bermúdez reviews the origins of Southeast and its expansion strategy, reflects on the importance of trust in building long-term relationships, the impact of artificial intelligence on the financial world, and the key lessons he learned while building a company from the ground up.

What gap or need did you identify in the Latin American market that led you to found Southeast?

Based on my experience and prior knowledge of the industry, I eventually identified a specific opportunity: to design a customized solution for high-net-worth families in Chile using a structured product developed in England—one that is well known in Europe for this type of client but was virtually unknown in Latin America at the time.

Over time, that initial idea evolved into an innovative solution for the countries we were developing in the region. With that business model in mind, I founded Southeast in 2011, and that same year I moved to the Andean country, where I lived for four years. The entire initial process involved designing the solution for the market and consulting with local attorneys, investment banks, and institutions in the United States and Europe. That was exactly how our company got started. We hold a Portfolio Manager license granted by the Central Bank of Uruguay, originally obtained in 2018 as an investment advisory firm, with offices in Montevideo, Punta del Este, and Miami.

In wealth management, trust is one of the key drivers of the business. How is that trust built? Through people’s interpersonal skills, methodologies, processes, or transparency?

It’s a combination of all these variables, although the weight of each one varies depending on the market or the client. However, at the end of the day, what makes the difference is being thoroughly prepared in all the disciplines that come into play when advising a family. Trust is the absolute cornerstone; without it, other methodologies or tools have no place. But trust isn’t built overnight: it’s built through consistency between what I say and what I do, sustained over time. It is grounded in honesty—even when the truth is uncomfortable—transparency in explaining the reasoning behind my decisions, and solid knowledge that supports my actions. But when someone places their peace of mind in our advice, what matters most is putting their interests before my own: managing their resources with the same care as my own, and being clear about the risks, not just the opportunities. That is where trust is won or lost.

In my experience, building it involved making important decisions, such as moving to Chile. At the time, I was coming from a very comfortable corporate position and moved into a completely independent ecosystem, which presented the enormous challenge of starting to work on my own. Chile is an extremely demanding and highly developed market in wealth management, both locally and internationally. It was a complex challenge, and in fact, at first it was harder than I had imagined: it took me almost a year and a half to earn the trust of my first client.

How did you manage to keep this process going?

I believe it was discipline, commitment, and hours of dedication—that’s what set everything else in motion. Added to that was a combination of prior experience, an innovative approach for that market, and in-depth knowledge, both local and international. During that initial stage, the strategic partnerships I forged with highly respected figures in the industry were crucial. But above all, what allowed me to persevere through that process—even during the most difficult moments—was the conviction that I had something genuinely different to offer, both to clients and to the industry as a whole.

With that first client, we managed—for the first time—to bring them to the same table with their bank and legal team, coordinating a comprehensive joint strategy and validating our suggestion and alternative approach to managing and planning their wealth. For that family, this way of working was something they had never experienced before, and it was precisely at that point that we began to be viewed as true independent advisors, both in the eyes of the client and their own trusted teams.

After those first steps, building an extraordinary team—both professionally and personally—is what allowed us to establish ourselves and expand as a company. Santiago Costa has been with Southeast since 2018, and today he leads our Wealth Planning division as director; his becoming a partner in the firm in 2023 gives the company—and me personally—the opportunity to be closer to and more focused on those first families and relationships that trusted us from the very beginning.

You may have the best infrastructure or the best product, but if that factor that builds customer trust is missing, the relationship will never fully take hold. The key to ensuring that relationships and business ventures stand the test of time is to always approach them with the mindset of building relationships, not just making transactions. That is, ultimately, what distinguishes a bond that lasts twenty-five years from one that falls apart at the first market correction.

What is the specific difference between traditional portfolio management and the comprehensive wealth planning that you implement on a daily basis?

The difference is radical. Historically, this industry was structured around a transactional model. In other words, advisors were compensated based on the transactions they generated. Breaking away from that cultural inertia isn’t easy, but the market has changed. Today, deciding what to buy, what to sell, when, and how has become a transactional matter. With today’s access to information—and even with advances in artificial intelligence—it’s easier to build a basic portfolio. That’s not where the real difference lies.

Southeast’s approach focuses on providing added value that goes far beyond the transactional level. We sit on the same side of the table as families, aligning our interests with theirs. In fact, from the very beginning, we’ve given them access to direct co-investment in real-economy private equity, with us participating alongside them with our own capital in every Operation. This requires us to delve deeply into our clients’ real needs—short-, medium-, and long-term. It involves considering not only their family wealth but also their family circumstances, their business structure, and their relationships with their partners. It also requires the maturity to bring up complex and difficult topics—ones that are essential for serious wealth protection and planning.

From the very beginning, we have structured this approach through what we call our management circle, a methodology that we continue to apply rigorously. This circle ensures that every strategy goes through key stages: building trust through independence, contributing local and international knowledge, acting with empathy in response to the client’s needs, and applying our expertise to protect, manage, and plan for the family today, tomorrow, and for future generations. Ultimately, what sets us apart is the shift from reactive investment management to comprehensive, strategic, and multigenerational wealth management.

They have been operating for more than a decade in a region marked by significant regulatory changes. How do they manage to maintain operational agility in such uncertain environments?

Our growth was slow but steady; we made the decision to take it one step at a time. As I mentioned, I started in Chile 15 years ago, and it wasn’t until three years after we had established ourselves there that I considered expanding into a second market, such as Peru. For us, maintaining and nurturing trust over time requires an extremely deep understanding of the environment in which we operate: its regulations, its tax framework, and, most importantly, its unique characteristics.

If we take Latin America as a reference, the reality is that there is always a degree of uncertainty. The last 20 years have seen radical changes. In other words, the way we view the business has changed, as has the way clients approach their advisors and their needs. Clients had a hard time adjusting to that change, but the world is already moving in that direction: today they demand much more comprehensive and holistic advice than they did two decades ago. Our primary role is to guide them and be unequivocal: in this new global landscape, we must do things right. There are tools, solutions, and advice available to achieve this; they may be more complex, costly, or limit flexibility to some extent, but they are the only viable path to protecting a family’s wealth and business assets.

And throughout all of this, the team has been—and continues to be—the key element, the driving force behind the company. Without people who have in-depth knowledge of each local market, and without a shared commitment to our work philosophy, it would be impossible to maintain that agility in the face of such diverse regulatory frameworks.

Does that level of rigor compel them to expand into regions where they can generate added value?

Exactly. In Southeast, we’re taking it step by step: Chile, Peru, Mexico, Colombia, and now Brazil. Brazil has a unique characteristic that few other markets in the region share: each state functions almost as its own jurisdiction in terms of regulations and taxation, which requires a much more granular understanding of local conditions than in the other countries where we operate. We’ve had an active presence there for two years, traveling there every month, but until now our priority hasn’t been to seek out business opportunities, but rather to understand the market, take in the economic, regulatory, and political changes, and make ourselves known. It’s only this year that we’ll begin to capitalize on these efforts and advise local families.

That same philosophy of delivering real value is what explains our approach to Argentina. Today we have a very specific client base there, and we have a thorough understanding of how the country operates and what families there need. But Argentina’s unique characteristics and environment call for a different approach: our model is very comprehensive, and it requires the local ecosystem to align with that philosophy as well. What we’re seeing is that this is beginning to change in Argentina, and that a service that differs from the traditional one is increasingly valued.

They currently manage USD 450 million in assets and USD 2.5 billion in structured assets. How are they preparing to scale the company without losing the hyper-personalized nature of their service?

They currently manage USD 450 million in assets and USD 2.5 billion in structured assets. How are they preparing to scale the company without losing the hyper-personalized nature of their service?

That’s the key point. The reality is that we work with a limited number of clients and families: when it comes to assets under management at the Multi-Family Office, we set certain minimums that make sense for both parties when working together. On the other hand, when it comes to structuring, we work from the outset with the region’s leading financial institutions and top financial and legal advisors, providing added value and practical planning for their clients; this model places far fewer day-to-day operational demands on us, because we are not the ones managing the direct relationship with each end client—rather, it is their advisor or the institution representing them.

There, too, our focus on expansion is limited: we view every advisor, institution, and end client as someone to whom we must offer the best service, support, and expertise. Ultimately, this limits our growth on the one hand, but strengthens the company’s continuity and stability on the other. We are very aware of what both end clients and advisors need in each of the markets where we operate, and that is where we create a significant competitive edge and added value that all parties appreciate. Our goal is to scale up in volume without sacrificing our close relationships with advisors, institutions, and clients.

The key to scaling up lies in our team. To provide truly comprehensive wealth management advice, we approach each client from multiple angles: we need lawyers, accountants, economists, and investment experts working in sync. Bringing that talent together was our biggest challenge, but today we have a team of 13 specialized professionals.

In an industry where mass-market approaches have caused investors to lose out on personalized service, we ensure that our added value fosters the closeness, trust, and planning between advisors and clients that all parties need—but that are rarely evident. Good management is not just about investments, their risks, and returns: the most sophisticated families and advisors already know this, and that is where we provide a fully personalized service of great value to all parties.

All of this is done with complete independence and without any conflict of interest. I am aware that this is the longest path, the most difficult to implement, and probably the least scalable on a large scale. However, it is precisely this model that gives us operational peace of mind and builds that absolute trust in the eyes of the families, advisors, and institutions that work with us.

Uruguay is an extremely attractive financial hub on the continent. How does operating within a corporate ecosystem like Zonamerica’s impact your day-to-day management?

I’d say that the relationship of trust we strive to build with our clients is the same dynamic that binds us to Zonamerica. At first, my arrival happened naturally because I was already working out of the park during my time at Aiva. However, when I decided to go independent, they immediately welcomed me with open arms and offered their support from day one.

But beyond the operational convenience and the excellent level of service we receive every day, the real impact of being here lies in the ecosystem. Within the wealth management and financial advisory industry, Zonamerica is a massive hub. Walking through the park means running into the sector’s leading figures, especially on the international stage. Being immersed in that network of contacts and that caliber of talent is essential to our business.

Looking ahead to the medium term and the inevitable transfer of family wealth, what technological innovations are set to disrupt the sector in the near future?

Talking about Artificial Intelligence over the next five years may sound repetitive because it’s already transforming every industry. For us, the true power of AI lies in everything it improves behind the scenes: service, the quality of information, and the speed of management. That’s undeniable, and we fully embrace it. But there’s one thing no technology can replace, and that’s truly knowing a client: understanding their history, their family dynamics, and what they don’t say during the first meeting. That knowledge is built through years of human interaction, not data. AI makes us better at managing; the bond with the family remains—and I believe will always remain—a job for people.

Our vision for the immediate future focuses on using AI and aggregation technologies to solve problems caused by a lack of consolidated information. Often, a client has investment accounts at different institutions, as well as farmland, real estate, a building, or a boat. What we already do today—and will continue to enhance in the future—is integrate absolutely all liquid and illiquid assets into a single account statement. Effective management requires having an accurate, up-to-date picture of one’s financial and family situation; precise information makes all the difference.

AI will allow us to automate and deepen that analysis of assets, but the true added value comes from applying that data to the reality of the family. There are suggestions that are technically correct—for example, buying or selling an asset—but a key question might be: How does a decision align with that particular family’s cash flow, needs, and succession plan?

This is where the structure of a modern multi-family office comes into play; it must function as a well-oiled machine across four major areas: Asset Management, Wealth Planning (tax planning, estate planning, and asset protection), Risk Management, and Privacy. The key differentiator in the coming years will be combining the analytical power of AI with human specialists in each of these disciplines.

Today, we’re no longer just talking to the founders who built their fortunes five decades ago; we’re advising second- and third-generation heirs. The children and grandchildren of the founders—as well as entrepreneurs who have sold their companies or created tech unicorns—already have a digital-native mindset. Many of them already know, or think they know, how to value a portfolio and can set up their own comparison and decision-making platforms; for them, the financial market is already just a click away, and what they’re looking for and need are different kinds of solutions and advice.

Therefore, the industry’s challenge over the next five years will not be the digitization of portfolios, but rather the ability to integrate that technology into a hyper-personalized strategy. Financial markets are dynamic, but so are families: they evolve, their needs change, and they face political, regulatory, and tax shifts. The future of wealth management belongs to those who can combine maximum technological efficiency with what technology cannot replace: trust, in-depth knowledge, and a truly elevated vision of wealth planning. That is what makes it possible to adapt wealth to real-life changes.