How can a wealth manager best deliver what clients want? And indeed, how do they know what clients want in the first place? Certainly, much has been made of the importance of delivering an exceptional and frictionless client experience. It goes without saying that a client who does not feel looked after and does not have an experience that exceeds expectations will look to switch adviser. But that is only half of the story. The experience is made up of two critical components - the way the client is serviced by the wealth manager, but also, it includes the actual offer from the wealth manager. That means not just the investment offering, but also the way the adviser works to understand the specifics of the client’s personal circumstances, their needs and goals, as well as their overall objectives. All of this depends very much on where the client is in their lifetime investment journey.

Indeed, the Covid-19 pandemic promoted much soul-searching and a reassessment of goals and priorities. On both the client and the adviser side, there has been significant adoption of digital channels. Thus, how service is delivered has largely changed to incorporate a hybrid approach - keeping the all-important human touch, but backing it up with the use of digital channels and technology to empower the adviser to consistently deliver the best service possible.

Personalisation
From a service delivery viewpoint, this means harvesting data and using it to better understand client behaviour and values and, in turn, drive appropriate investment decisions relevant to the client. Someone who is interested only in blue-chip stocks and prefers a phone call or an email rather than a virtual meeting will, accordingly, receive only content that is of relevance to them and, usually, via a phone call or email. By contrast, someone interested in private markets and happy to use virtual meetings and messaging to communicate will receive that information over the channels of their choice.

Thus, well-collected and organised data can empower the adviser to provide the best, personalised, and relevant advice and position the adviser in turn to drive the most appropriate action at the right time for the client. Taking that a stage further, Artificial Intelligence (AI) can be gainfully employed in all its guises to provide insights into client behaviour and sentiment and to drive the next best actions when it comes to investment recommendations. Sentiment analysis is an important part of this. It can help the wealth manager take pre-emptive action if a client has concerns or is showing signs of unhappiness - perhaps even thinking about going elsewhere. Effective use of available data and AI can deepen the client relationship, encouraging trust, engagement, and ultimately, a growth in revenues and assets under management (AUM).

The investment proposition
Technology also helps when it comes to delivering on the core adviser activity, namely investment returns! In addition to supporting personalisation in the service offering, technology can also be used to help the adviser better define the client’s goals, risk appetite, suitability, and keep track of the evolution of client needs throughout their entire investment lifecycle. Again, this is something that the adviser would historically have done through a series of conversations with the client, but can now do far more effectively when supported by technology to make suggestions, access research and performance data, and leverage third-party data to boost client knowledge to drive even stronger and more relevant investment recommendations.

As important as the process around investing, the adviser also needs the tools to access investments, something that has been highlighted as investors seek to diversify into non-listed assets such as private markets or investments of passion. The means to access crypto is also high on the agenda, and interest in tokenised assets and even accessing the Metaverse will also come to the fore as they develop and gain traction with investors. Wealth managers will also need to keep on top of these developments and how they can be leveraged to improve processes.

A good wealth manager should also facilitate simple and clear client reporting in as close to real-time as possible, allowing also for what-if scenarios and other planning needs such as cashflow planning, IHT and succession planning, and other investment-related activities. This means having access to a strong technological ecosystem to leverage additional expertise and facilitate communication between various specialists and functions - such as lawyers and accountants - as and when needed, while always maintaining an accurate record of the clients themselves at the centre.

Security and compliance
The wealth manager needs to do all of this in a secure and compliant way, staying on top of regulatory changes, making sure that compliance is maintained at all times, and being able to evidence this.

As a result, having the right technology in place to make the ship watertight and ensure data privacy and security is also important. This is something that clients are understandably concerned about, and rightfully so - they trust their wealth manager with sensitive personal information and need to know that the wealth manager is taking the appropriate steps to protect their personal data and ensure it is secure in both storage and transit.

Indeed, the volume of data and complexity in compliance and security is such that a digital approach to regulatory compliance is necessary. Automation saves time and gives accuracy and auditability. The trains of regulation and increase in cybercrime show no sign of slowing. It is no surprise that the number of specialist Reg and Secure Tech offerings is also growing in number and sophistication.

Thus, this industry, based as it is on the human touch, also finds itself heavily reliant on the right technology tools to solidify and underpin its offering. Following is a selection of pieces highlighting just some aspects of the wealth management offering and detailing how technology underpins each, and how this same technology - leveraged well - can enhance the client experience, drive more personalised investment recommendations, mitigate risk and ultimately, grow the top line for the investment manager.

Interested in reading the full report? You can read this edition of the Swiss WealthTech Landscape Report 2024 online here.