Annual Report 2025 — Letter of the Chairman of the Board of Directors
To be reliable.
And to keep one’s word.
Dear clients, investors, and partners,
the more challenging the times, the more important a solid foundation becomes.
And with a solid foundation, seemingly simple values:
Being able to rely on someone.
And knowing that what has been said — stands.
None of us can escape the mounting pressures of today’s world — the demands, constant changes, expectations, and uncertainty. The daily overwhelm of sensory input and information. The daily need to make dozens of decisions and to face a wide variety of challenges in our professional, personal, and family lives.
All that remains is to decide what stance we are going to take and what we are going to do about it.
Our decision?
To uphold, time and again, those seemingly old-fashioned virtues:
To be trustworthy.
Always keep our word.
Because if we lose this — what will we have left?
After all, you can see the answer all around you. The more this fundamental trust and reliability erodes, the more fragile and uncertain our world becomes.
Maintaining these virtues definitely isn’t easy.
It shouldn’t be.
As a general rule, though:
The harder it is,
the more important it is.
Part of our commitment to you is, therefore, to oppose this pressure every day and to always be the partner you can rely on.
So that you can be sure that your property is safe.
That you have a whole team of people behind you who think, evaluate, and plan on your behalf.
That these are people who care about your life and comfort and are ready to do their utmost for you.
Even in these times.
Especially in these times.
We cannot do everything for you.
But we can take care of this one aspect of your lives.
That is no small thing.
Allow me, then, to look back, assess the past year, look ahead, and express our commitment and our promise.
The general 2025 framework:
A turbulent period of tariffs and a weak dollar
The year 2025 was largely shaped by a complex geopolitical and macroeconomic environment. One of its key elements was the renewed imposition of tariffs by Donald Trump, which introduced a heightened degree of uncertainty into global trade and supply chains.
Although such measures are often presented as tools to protect the domestic economy, their real impact is significantly broader. In practice, these steps influence inflation expectations, corporate margins, and ultimately sentiment in financial markets. From our perspective, these measures are more of a short-term political tool whose long-term effectiveness is debatable.
At the same time, we also observed the U.S. dollar weaken throughout the year, which had a significant impact on investment portfolio performance. For globally diversified investors, and particularly for our non-U.S. clients, the currency factor played a key role in the returns achieved.
All these factors confirm that today’s investment environment is increasingly influenced by macroeconomic variables. This, in turn, only underscores the importance of active portfolio management with an emphasis on discipline, diversification across asset classes, geographically, and by currency — and a responsible approach by a team of experts with a proven track record.
What you can rely on:
Our Investment Committee — and the results of its work.
The WEM Investment Committee is composed of WEM’s most senior members. All key decisions regarding our portfolios and their direction originate from this committee and are continuously evaluated and subjected to thorough scrutiny within it — so that you can be confident your assets are safe and we are managing them to the best of our ability.
Market valuations and valuation realities
The year 2025 was also a period when discussions about valuation levels in global stock markets increasingly came to the fore. Several major indices were trading at above-average multiples, which naturally raised questions about the sustainability of further growth.
Looking back at the periods of 2000 or 2008, however, it is important to note one key point: today’s situation is not identical.
While markets are not cheap, they are fundamentally healthier, with higher-quality companies, stronger cash flow, and better capital discipline than in those past periods.
Of course, this does not change the fact that higher valuations mean less room for error. That is why we place even greater emphasis on asset selection and risk management.
What you can rely on:
Our constant oversight and active management.
This means a lot of analysis, a lot of discussion, and a lot of decisions — both big and small. After all, your assets are at stake — as well as our name and reputation.
AI Technologies and Market Concentration
One of the most notable trends of 2025 was the continued dominance of the technology sector, particularly companies focused on artificial intelligence.
As many investors were pleased to discover, this trend delivered above-average returns. At the same time, however — and just as importantly — it also led to increased market concentration. Index performance was thus largely driven by a narrow group of companies, which increases systemic risk in the event of a correction.
From our perspective, the technology sector remains key, but we approach it selectively. Our goal is not to be blindly exposed, but to always understand where real value is being created, where expectations are already at play — and what steps we must subsequently take for our portfolios and our clients.
What you can rely on:
Our openness and attentiveness — as well as our level-headedness and critical perspective. We closely monitor opportunities for our investors to capitalize on favorable market conditions.
However, we also realize that blind and uncritical enthusiasm has no place in our work, and the more enthusiasm that emerges in a particular sector, the more cautious we must be.
Investor behavior
In 2025, it was confirmed — once again — that the greatest risk for an investor is not the market itself, but their own behavior.
Fear, greed, and a short-term view of reality often lead to decisions that conflict with long-term goals — and whose painful consequences often become fully apparent only after some time, when it is already too late to make meaningful changes or adjustments.
This highlights one of the key aspects of how we at WEM perceive and implement comprehensive wealth management:
Our role is not merely to manage capital.
Our role is also to help clients maintain discipline — especially when it is most difficult.
The flood of information and its easy access sometimes lead investors to the mistaken impression that information alone is enough to make the right decisions. It is therefore our responsibility to be not only a wealth manager but also a reliable partner for major decisions.
What you can rely on:
Our own discipline, resilience, long-term perspective, and prudence.
It is our responsibility to always consider a few more factors and look a few steps further than what is obvious — and to guide you correctly as a result.
Lessons learned
Mistakes are a natural part of business and investing, including ours.
Even in 2025, we made a few decisions we would do differently today, whether it was selecting certain assets or dispersing our attention across multiple projects.
We don’t see this as a failure. We see it as part of the process.
The goal isn’t to pretend we don’t make mistakes — the goal is to focus on ensuring that each one is a source of progress. Ultimately, what makes the difference is how quickly we can analyze the causes, make the necessary corrections, and apply these lessons to the future for better results.
What you can rely on:
Our ruthlessness.
And with it, our continuous drive toward comprehensive improvement across the entire spectrum of our activities. It is part of our DNA, it is part of who we are, and it is part of how we want to and will continue to do things.
WEM as a platform
We view improving the efficiency and quality of our services as a given, as a fundamental stepping stone (and we believe you do as well).
What may be less obvious is our insistence that, over time, greater efficiency must also translate into a fairer and more transparent fee structure.
This is because we no longer view Wealth Effect Management merely as an investment firm. We approach our work with a broader perspective — we are building an integrated platform that connects wealth management, investment management, and technological solutions into a single, consistent ecosystem, emphasizing quality, flexibility, and long-term sustainability.
As part of our strategic development, we therefore clearly defined three key pillars last year upon which WEM’s further growth rests:
The first pillar is our core business.
Comprehensive wealth management focused on affluent clients and families, with an emphasis on protecting and growing assets across generations.
The second pillar is the Flip B2B platform.
It allows us to provide our partners with technological and investment solutions that enable more efficient investment distribution and management in a professional environment.
The third pillar is our Wingman investment platform.
This new offering provides a modern solution that allows clients to independently access financial markets and execute their own investment decisions, while remaining part of our ecosystem and benefiting from our professional expertise.
This model enables a high degree of personalization and technological scalability, while creating an environment where the client has control and flexibility, alongside the assurance of a professional partner.
Our ambition and long-term vision is to further develop these pillars and integrate them into a unified system that will reflect the changing needs of the modern investor while maintaining the standards upon which WEM is built.
What you can rely on:
Our tenacity and determination.
Our goal is to provide investors with services and solutions of the same quality and scope as those offered by the world’s best asset managers. Nothing less.
People and their impact
The complexity of our services and our high standards inevitably mean that we need to expand our team and ensure that all of us — you and ourselves — can rely on their quality, maturity, and experience.
Compound interest makes a dramatic difference not only in asset appreciation — the same effect applies to a team that capitalizes on its members‘ experience.
In 2025, we therefore made several important personnel decisions that are already yielding significant rewards.
Peter Lakata began working with us on a part-time basis as early as 2024, but his involvement took off in full swing in 2025. As a Managing Partner and member of the Board of Directors, he has leveraged his 20+ years of experience in finance, digital transformation, and strategic management to develop strategic partnerships and shape the company’s strategic direction.
Diana Janošťáková, likewise with 20+ years of experience in banking, investments, and wealth management, has moved into the position of Director of Private Wealth & Institutions and is actively developing partnerships, products, and services for HNWI clients.
Finally, Vladimír Vaňo, one of Slovakia’s most cited analysts and a former advisor to Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Ivan Mikloš, now serves as Chief Economist, overseeing macroeconomic research and market analysis; he is a member of the Investment Committee and supports the investment team in portfolio management.
What you can rely on:
That we will continue to seek out, find, and train the best people in the market.
There is no other alternative.
Milestones and trajectory
There was no shortage of significant events in 2025; let’s mention at least a few of them, along with their practical implications.
Our new partnership with Saxo Bank emerged naturally from our growth and complements our existing connection with KBC. In practice, this step allows us to execute necessary securities transactions faster and more efficiently, while also opening up new possibilities and enabling greater automation and scalability of portfolios.
Establishing a partnership with the major Slovak broker pool Finportal has opened up an opportunity for hundreds of financial professionals to offer their clients selected WEM portfolios as well as exclusive portfolios tailored specifically for Finportal.
Throughout the year, we also continuously added new features to the WEM Benefit Card — and with them, more and more benefits and discounts for our clients across a wide range of options, from health and beauty care to dining experiences at select restaurants.
Finally, WEM Concierge Services continues to deliver “once-in-a-lifetime” experiences — over the past year, we took clients to the UEFA Super Cup, organized a tasting of vintage (and typically unavailable) Macallan whiskies, secured a reservation at the legendary Alchemist restaurant, and, among other things, our clients also experienced the Sumo Grand Tournament, which was held outside Japan for only the third time — right at The Royal Albert Hall in London.
What you can rely on:
That we will keep moving forward.
For you, for us, because we can, and because that’s how it should be.
In conclusion
2025 was yet another year that will be etched into our overall track record thanks to our results achieved under challenging conditions, changes, and significant steps — a year that reaffirmed our position in the market. That’s all well and good.
At the same time, it serves as a reminder that our best results and greatest strides should be those yet to come. If anything, past successes should only serve as motivation to move forward and not as a reason to rest on our laurels.
The most important question in all of this, however, is — what does all of this mean? Specifically, practically, and for you?
It means that we are here.
With you, by your side, and for you.
You can rely on us.
Sincerely,
Peter Štadler
CEO & Chairman of the Board of Directors
Wealth Effect Management, o.c.p., a.s.
You can read the Annual Report 2025 HERE.
