The unexpected death last month of Julius Baer Holding AG's head of private banking, Alex Widmer, may hasten a rethink of the Swiss bank's costly expansion.

Widmer, 52 years old, was the architect of Julius Baer's strategy of wooing rich clients from outside the bank's Swiss home market and personally recruited many of the scores of advisers hired since 2006. While the strategy has paid off handsomely with fresh client funds, revenue is now falling as the financial crisis pinches.