Private bankers - help clients invest their money wisely and avoid any risks that might reduce the value of their assets. They also offer advice on tax and pensions, help clients to develop a strategy for charitable giving, and advise them on bequeathing their wealth to the next generation.

Private client brokers - help clients to buy and sell financial products, particularly equities or stocks (hence the term "stockbroker"). They also offer advice on the best products to invest in.

The clientele of wealth managers ranges from company chief executives to property tycoons, investment bankers, footballers, pop stars or members of privately run family businesses.

Typically private banks look for clients with at least US$1m to invest, but many deal only with clients whose financial assets alone are worth more than US$30m.

In a career as a private banker, the jobs you perform will fall into one of three broad categories: investing money for existing clients, building relationships (i.e. a 'relationship manager'), or managing back-office functions such as human resources or accounting.

Private bankers working on the investment side either invest their clients' money themselves or offer their clients detailed advice to help them invest their own money. They are typically product specialists who are experts in a particular field such as fixed income, equities, structured products of any kind, or investments in the private equity and hedge fund sectors.

Private bankers on the relationship side are effectively salespeople who spend their time cultivating links with clients and selling the bank's services.

Relationship private banking can involve a lot of travelling and close contact with interesting, unusual and demanding people. The role of the relationship private banker is to establish a client's needs, investment specialists are then brought in to put a more detailed solution together.Private client brokers typically come in two kinds. The first is those working on discretionary mandates, in which wealthy clients communicate their general investment strategy and the broker buys and sells the financial products they think appropriate. The other kind is those working on advisory mandates, where the broker advises the client what to invest in, but needs their permission before actually making a move. Junior client brokers are most likely to work on advisory mandates.