Always Day One

It is an enormous privilege for me to write this foreword for the third year running, and I am filled with a deep sense of pride and gratitude. Once again, the assets under management have reached record levels across all the regions of the continent in which we operate. We have kept our operations running efficiently and maintained a rock-solid balance sheet. In the Netherlands, we have stepped up our external growth strategy, while the acquisition of Dierickx Leys has strengthened our position as Belgium’s leading independent private bank. At the heart of our success – hardly surprising in a profession built on personal service – lie our passionate and dedicated employees.

I want to express my heartfelt thanks to our clients for their trust, and to our employees, who ensure that trust is truly earned.

That Delen Private Bank is in such robust health fills me with pride and gratitude, but it also keeps me grounded and watchful. Of course, there are challenges as well. Some bring new opportunities, like the rise of AI and the growing emphasis on sustainability. Others are wholly unpredictable, such as geopolitical tensions. And some lie within the organisation itself. At Delen, I see protecting and strengthening our corporate culture as our most important mission in the years ahead.

After all, we want to sustain our top-tier service and keep improving the client experience. The only way to do that is through responsible, sustainable growth. However, growing in size carries the risk that our greatest strength – the Delen DNA – might gradually become diluted. It is a challenge the management team and I take very seriously. On the one hand, the golden triangle of our service – client proximity, operational efficiency through cutting-edge digital tools and returns aligned with market expectations – demands constant investment, especially in people. In Belgium alone, we have been hiring at a rapid pace in recent years. And in 2025, a year in which we also welcome our new colleagues from Dierickx Leys, we will most likely maintain this pace. In the Netherlands, we have acquired three asset management firms in just over a year. We are thrilled to welcome such a wealth of talent to our organisation.

As our team continues to grow, it becomes all the more vital to preserve what makes us unique: the Delen touch. Our DNA defines who we are and acts as a compass in everything we do and how we do it.

I firmly believe we can keep that identity alive, if we continue to foster and honour our start-up spirit. But what does that spirit entail in practice? At Delen, it means having an ambitious, long-term vision – investing in talent, infrastructure and information technology. It means bringing passion to everything we do, with a trademark eye for detail. It means staying laser-focused on our core mission: responsible investment and financial planning for our clients, to secure their financial freedom, today and tomorrow. It means striving for clarity and simplicity in an economic, political, and legal environment that is anything but, so we can respond to challenges with agility and confidence. And it means staying grounded, keeping our feet firmly on the ground, because success is never guaranteed.

Jacques Delen, our Chairman, took over the family firm from his father in 1975 – driven, ambitious and passionate. Precisely fifty years on, that same passion still fuels him, inspiring those around him. Every day is Day One, again and again. Perhaps that is the secret to staying young at heart – whether as a person or an organisation.