Ali Kanaan is Head of Customer Support at quirion. A few years ago, the 33-year-old made a deliberate move from commission-based sales into independent advice. What prompted him to do so, what shapes his working day, and why he prefers to “delegate” building his own wealth.
If you had asked Ali Kanaan at the end of his school years what he would one day become, he would hardly have come up with a role as Head of Customer Support at a digital wealth manager. He was more interested in politics than in business topics. “I didn’t see myself in a pure office job either,” he says, looking back. “But after giving it some thought, I decided that a business degree would ultimately open up more opportunities for my future.”
In Bochum, he studied “Management & Economics,” a combination of economics and business administration. Towards the end of his studies, someone offered him the chance to work independently within a network as a commission-based financial advisor. He liked the idea of being his own boss. He was successful at it for around three years and earned a good living.
After a while, however, a feeling crept over him that something was not right. “I realised that, on balance, things were going better for me than for my customers.” The reason was the tight focus on product commissions. It was all about pushing as many products as possible onto people. Sales revenue mattered more than customer satisfaction. “When you don’t have much experience yet and your own salary depends on it, it’s easy to convince yourself that you’re one of the good guys and acting in the customer’s interest,” Kanaan notes. “It was only over time that I recognised the problem lies in financing advice through commissions.”
His path to quirion
Kanaan therefore decided to move to a Düsseldorf wealth manager that advised customers on a fee basis – his first step into independent advice. He felt far more comfortable with that. But at his new employer, he found the innovative drive and ambition to bring investing to broader sections of society lacking. “I come from a modest background, and I think it’s really important that as many people as possible have access to the return opportunities of the capital markets.”
A few months later, at a training course, he learned more about the strategy and goals of Quirin Privatbank and of quirion. A digital wealth manager with a bank behind it, independence from product commissions, low fees nonetheless, and an investment concept with return opportunities for every budget: “I absolutely wanted to be part of that, and I immediately started looking for open positions.”
The 33-year-old has now been with quirion’s customer support since March 2019, and its head since March 2020. Together with him, the team consists of seven colleagues in total. At the heart of the work are the many enquiries from prospective customers as well as existing customers. “On average, around 6,000 enquiries come in each month across the various communication channels,” Kanaan reports.
A strategy for sitting back
The phone rings especially often when things are heating up again on the markets. Do you need to reallocate when prices in certain markets rise or fall sharply? Is now a good or a bad time to invest? He and his team explain to those asking why they can spare themselves such worries with quirion’s global and sustainable portfolios. “Through particularly broad diversification, our investment strategy aims for the long-term average return of the global equity market,” Kanaan emphasises. “No one knows the future – not even a market expert. With our strategy, you don’t need to concern yourself at all with the constantly shifting opinions about what will happen next.”
The forecast-free approach is unfamiliar to many investors at first. “But when we explain it, most understand why it’s the right path for building wealth over the long term,” Kanaan emphasises. That said, the headlines about the latest trends – and the accompanying stream of “hot stock tips” – never let up. That is why Kanaan and his team constantly have to do persuasive work.
He himself trusts the approach completely. “I deal with investing professionally, but I wouldn’t necessarily count it among my hobbies,” the football fan reveals. “I’m glad when I can devote my private time to other things and leave building wealth to a digital wealth manager.”
The human factor at a robo-advisor
Even if the term “robo-advisor” suggests otherwise: “With us, it’s people who set the tone, not algorithms,” Kanaan stresses. “We use the possibilities of digitalisation, but the essential work is done by people.” Part of that is the fact that, beyond customer support, quirion offers qualified, independent advice. This offering draws on the advisory network of Quirin Privatbank. Kanaan coordinates the collaboration.
He and his team are the first point of contact for all prospective and existing customers, reachable via a contact form on the website, by email, or by phone. Here, too, the “human factor” shows. Unlike at many other companies, you don’t first have to make do with automated voices on the phone and tap in lots of numbers before being allowed through to a real person. “It matters to me that with us you reach the right contact person as quickly as possible.”
Kanaan is proud that the quality of customer support is high. That is not just something said in passing – it is measured every day. In the evaluations, 90 percent report being satisfied or very satisfied with the answers. Among his most important goals is to set up customer support for quirion’s further growth and to keep satisfaction high. “I can identify far more with this goal than with the sales targets of commission-based advice.”
