Purpose The study aims to develop a data-based decision model for private bankers when recommending hedge funds to their customers in financial institutions. Design/methodology/approach The independent variables are set in two groups. The independent variables of the first group are aggressive investors, active investors, and risk-neutral type investors. In the second group, variables considered by private bankers include customer propensity to invest, reliability, product subscription experience, professionalism, intimacy, and product understanding. A decision-making variable for a private banker is in recommending a first-rate general private fund composed of foreign and domestic FinTech products. These contain dependent variables that include target return rate(%), fund period (months), safeguard existence, underlying asset, and hedge fund name. Findings Based on the research results, there is a 94.4% accuracy in decision-making when the independent variables (customer rating, reliability, intimacy, product subscription experience, professionalism and product understanding) are used according to the following order of relevant dependent variables: step 1 on safeguard existence, step 2 on target return rate, step 3 on fund period, and step 4 on hedge fund name. Next, a 93.7% accuracy is expected when decision-making uses the following order of dependent variables: step 1 on safeguard existence, step 2 on target return rate, step 3 on underlying asset, and step 4 on fund period. In conclusion, a private banker conducts a decision making stage when recommending hedge funds to their customers. When examining a private banker's recommendations of hedge funds to a customer, independent variables influencing dependent variables are intimacy, product comprehension, and product subscription experience according to a categorical regression model and artificial neural network analysis model.