This panel covered the outlook for the Swiss wealth management industry. It featured Mark Hauser, Head Europe and Managing Partner at Tenity; Jürg Stalder, Head of Regulatory Propositions at SIX; Nicolas Huras, Managing Partner at MiCa Group; Olga Miler, Co-Founder and CEO at SmartPurse - Financial Education Platform; and Dr, Christoph Künzle, Senior Lecturer at ZHAW School of Management and Law.

Topic covered included:

• Changing client demographics and values.
• The evolution of advisers to become wealth coaches and holistic financial planners.
• The use of data and Artificial Intelligence (AI).
• The need for greater collaboration between incumbents and FinTechs.

The panel began by highlighting the need for wealth managers to become more client centric by investing more in digital skills and education. Doing so will serve to capture the attention of younger investors who have different expectations from their parents around service levels and delivery mechanisms for financial matters.

Künzle comments: “The ‘Great Wealth Transfer’ is one facet of a younger generation of investors, but there is also a whole new cohort of young wealthy people emerging from minorities, crypto investors, influencers and the like. I don’t think that Swiss wealth managers have really caught on to this and adjusted their offering accordingly.”

The panel then moved on to talk about innovation. It was thought investing in technology is a key driver of innovation, as is forming partnerships between traditional and startup players to provide holistic financial planning, using data and AI to drive personalisation, and, again, modernising the service on offer. Other suggestions to drive innovation included changing KPIs for advisers to reward customer satisfaction, as opposed to just assets managed. Leveraging technology to achieve scale was also mentioned.

Looking at all of the above will not only capture the emerging mass affluent, but also drive cost efficiencies and lead to a sleeker operational model.

Upskilling and training
There is also a compelling argument for wealth managers to invest in upskilling and training their advisers to be able to use technology more proficiently and thus, provide a service that exceeds client expectations.

Miler commented: “Having deeper digital skillsets within the adviser force will become absolutely paramount, because if you give people the best tools then they stand more chance of impressing the client – and that will matter more and more going forwards.”

Visions for the future wealth management
The panellists discussed the look and feel of a future vision of hyper-personalised wealth management. This would be run by specialised wealth coaches and supported by technology tools and broader expertise to make the most of trusted human relationships combined with data-driven customisation.

Stalder commented on the need to provide service that is appropriate to the individual customer. “I think there will be two kinds of people; those that self-serve, and those that value the human connection that the adviser brings. For the latter, the need is to add value beyond the use of technology – not just understanding the product portfolio, but having a deep knowledge around about wealth structuring, tax advisory, succession planning, philanthropy, and potentially family governance. But to do that, the adviser will need to rely both on technology and the team, surrounded by the right tools and expertise in order to deliver the right service,” he said.

Hauser added that the need was to serve all customers no matter what their preferences. He used the analogy of Uber taxis which people order and pay for online. “That’s innovative, but it is not for everyone. Some people still prefer to ring the taxi office and pay in cash,” he explained.

The role of technology and data
When it came to the actual technologies that will contribute the most to personalisation and process efficiency, the panel cited AI and Blockchain along with relevant data strategies. However, it was acknowledged that data quality and structure would always have a significant impact on the effectiveness of technology.

Indeed, without high-quality data that is well structured, technology can only do so much. Generative AI may be able to partially mitigate against data issues, however.  provides insights from unstructured data and reduces reliance on perfect data and, thus, could act as a key drive for innovation and help to improve the client experience via the provision of personalised insights and customisation.

Huras underscored the need to leverage technology: “Scaling up to do more with less is where technology can add the most value. I think a lot of the experience that we have in our private life will obviously bring pressure, but banks also need to invest in technology to reduce their operating costs. The more operational standardisation we can create the better. With data, this implies better management to be able to provide more quality and value to the client via customisation and personalisation.”

About the Swiss WealthTech Live 2024
Our Swiss WealthTech Live 2024 event took place in Zürich in February and hosted some 160 market participants from private banks, cantonal banks, external asset managers, family offices, technology vendors, consultants, and more to express their views, experiences, and visions for the future. We celebrated a full day of keynote presentations and panel discussions, with plenty of networking opportunities.

During the event, we also released our Swiss WealthTech Landscape Report 2024. This issue of the report includes 24 thought-provoking articles, 10 Solution Showcases, and 539 entries in our Solution Provider Directory.

Access the full report here.