Investment tips from private bankers

(Reuters) - Following are investment tips from private banking executives speaking at the Reuters Wealth Management Summit being held this week in Boston, Singapore and Geneva:

PATRICK DU SAINT, BNP PARIBAS, HEAD OF PRIVATE BANKING SWITZERLAND,

"It is difficult to give advice, the bank is very cautious. The reaction of the client was a flight to safety, safety starting from the name of the bank. Safety can mean cash and government bonds."

JUERG ZELTNER, UBS, HEAD OF WEALTH MANAGEMENT NORTH, EAST AND CENTRAL EUROPE

"Today it is basically gold, government bonds, cash. This is not the type of asset allocation we know is the best. We need confidence back, people are still shying away from everything.

GERARD AQUILINA, VICE-CHAIRMAN OF BARCLAYS WEALTH

"We like emerging markets, specifically Asia. We think there are opportunities in the fixed income sector, specifically corporate bonds. You could also select mortgage securities."

ENRIQUE MARAZUELA, CHIEF INVESTMENT OFFICER OF BBVA PATRIMONIOS

"I'm convinced if we buy equities now, we're going to do a good business. In the words of Warren Buffett, value is what you get."

PETER FLAVEL, STANDARD CHARTERED, GLOBAL HEAD, PRIVATE BANK

"We have a golden rule in the group - we only invest in things we understand. If we don't understand it, we don't touch it."

DARIO PRUNOTTO, UNICREDIT PRIVATE BANKING, CHIEF EXECUTIVE

"We are advising clients to be liquid without any risk."

BERNARD COUCKE, ING GROEP, HEAD OF PRIVATE BANKING EUROPE

"Gold is good to put on the neck of your spouse but not to invest. Look to the gold price over the last 10 years. Sometimes it follows commodities and sometimes it is contrary. Putting money in a vault or one asset class is dangerous."

CHRISTOPHE BERNARD, UNION BANCAIRE, HEAD OF ASSET MANAGEMENT

"When neither bonds nor equities are cheap, hedge funds are attractive. But when bonds and equities become very cheap, there is an argument to shift."

"Hedge funds are meant to produce absolute returns. But if the decline continues, the basic function of hedge funds will have failed."

BORIS COLLARDI, JULIUS BAER, CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER

"We advise everyone to be conservative. Reduce exposure to preserve."

"We're looking at clients strongly invested in equities to come out. But on a selective basis. There are investments that will come out quite nicely out of this. Not everything is bad."

"Bonds are the same -- be very selective. We advise clients that have cash to go into money market instruments."

JENNIFER TAY, CITI PRIVATE BANK, ASIA-PACIFIC HEAD OF PORTFOLIO COUNSELLING

"We tell clients, markets are not going to stay down forever. There will come a time when you have very decent recovery and typically even when you look at the (past) since the 1950s, you had nine recessions and after a recession markets just spike upwards.

"I think our worst bets this year have been really in the Asian and emerging markets. They have lost a lot of value."

MARCEL KREIS, CREDIT SUISSE, HEAD OF PRIVATE BANKING ASIA-PACIFIC

"The advice that we have been giving clients who just don't know where to go is to say 'Keep your money short-term, keep it in treasuries, keep it in deposits'. Because the outlook is anything but clear, no one has a crystal ball."

"The best advice we have given to clients is to look to reduce the leveraging on their portfolios."

PIERRE BAER, SG PRIVATE BANKING, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER FOR SINGAPORE AND

SOUTH ASIA

"If you want to reinvest (in the market), yes you can start picking up but it's not something we actively recommend at this stage, there's still uncertainty."

"Today what we are seeing is a general raising of cash ...Once you raise your cash the question is, what do you do with it, what is it you look for? ...One is bonds, fixed income, top quality bonds, it's not very sexy, but it's really a question of back to basics."

(Compiled by John O'Donnell and Melanie Lee; Editing by Jason Neely)