This is already the fourth article in my series on growth in wealth management. And yet, I have not talked about the most important element: the client. Omitting the client from a discussion on growth is a cardinal mistake.

We can spend endless time debating the mechanics such as value drivers, growth success factors, offerings, and operating models. But the fundamental question is: how have client requirements evolved, and how well have we addressed them to create value?

What has changed — and what has not

Recently, a senior partner of a well-known external asset manager told me, “We still advise clients today the same way we did 20–30 years ago. A bit more regulated, a bit more digital, but the storyline has not changed.”

That is alarming when you consider that Switzerland is an innovation epicentre and home to countless fintechs. But this statement becomes clearer when looking at how innovation evolved over the last decades.

The two dimensions of innovation

Innovation in wealth management can be viewed through two lenses:

• Efficiency — doing the same things faster, cheaper, or with less input.
• Effectiveness — creating something fundamentally new that changes the way things are done.

Both are important. Efficiency is a need-to-have — a sanity factor that keeps firms competitive and compliant. But it is not the focus of this series. Because this is about growth, and growth comes from effectiveness: reimagining advice to create new value for clients.

Over the past decades, most innovation in wealth management has been about efficiency: streamlining back office and compliance processes, meeting regulatory requirements such as KYC and the like. At the client interface, the focus was mostly on new investment products — tokenisation, crypto, or easier access to private markets. Important elements, but not fundamentally changing the advisory experience.

History illustrates the contrast well. Henry Ford once said, “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”

That is efficiency — optimising the old model. His breakthrough, the Model T, was effectiveness: a completely new solution that redefined mobility. On the other hand, Ford’s other famous line, “Any colour the customer wants, as long as it is black,” shows how efficiency drives scale and standardisation, but often limits choice.

I feel that wealth management has taken a similar path: plenty of efficiency gains in compliance and processes, and some effectiveness in product innovations like tokenisation or fractional shares. But true effectiveness at the client interface remained limited — reimagining the advisory experience remains a missing piece.

When regulation drives innovation at the client interface

In some markets, stricter regulation did not just reshape compliance — it reshaped the client experience and value delivery. The two strictest jurisdictions with regard to consumer protection are probably the UK and the Netherlands. As a consequence of fee transparency and the ban on commissions, their firms were forced to rethink how they deliver value. The result: financial planning moved from “nice to have” to the core of the advisory model, justifying fees at a time when custody and brokerage have become commodities. Clients now expect a clear planning component as part of the service. Efficiency then becomes important as financial planning used to be very time-intense.

The dimensions of innovation in wealth management - few effectiveness in the upper right corner.

In Switzerland, by contrast, holistic and effective financial planning is still largely absent. In my view, this is a direct consequence of the lighter regulation that has not forced firms to reimagine advice in the way the UK and Netherlands have. And while technical capabilities exist, they are often underused.

The focus going forward

Since this newsletter article series is about growth as a design choice, I want to shift the lens from efficiency to effectiveness. Efficiency will always matter — it is the hygiene factor every firm needs. But effectiveness is where real differentiation and growth happen. I will come back to efficiency again when discussing pricing strategy.

For me, effectiveness means reshaping the advisory experience so that products and services are no longer the starting point, but the outcome of genuine financial advice. In other words: advice first, products second — linking clients’ life goals directly to their financial decisions.

Or even better, as Ivica Jankovic, a top adviser at Quirin Privatbank, highlighted at the Private Banking Forum (PBF) organised by Martin Janzen and Ntsal in Cologne last week: 

"Capital preservation is not a life goal — it is merely a financial one. What truly matters are the client’s life goals: for example, living comfortably from their wealth today while ensuring it can be passed on as a lasting legacy tomorrow."

So what do clients actually want and need? How have their expectations shifted — if at all? And what kind of innovation would truly change the storyline of advice, instead of just making the same story more efficient?

Three recent studies underline the point:

1. EY Global Wealth Management Research Report 2025: this long-running series consistently shows clients say they want holistic advice linked to their life goals. The report also highlights how generational expectations differ across age brackets.

2. Amundi: Decoding digital investments 2025: in Switzerland, 70% of investors lack a financial plan. Yet clients with a plan are four times more likely to feel confident about achieving a secure retirement.

3. World Economic Forum and Accenture: The Future of Financial Advice 2024: the report outlines key trends in future financial advice - from advice tailored to clients' life goals, to hyper-personalisation, to accessability and inclusion.

All reports point to the same truth
Clients do not want more products — they want financial advice that is relevant to them, that is based on their specific situation, and that is easy to understand. And this all comes when we put financial planning first.

Why am I so sure about this?
The evidence is not just academic: in my Learning from winners article, I highlighted Quirin Privatbank AG — a firm that achieved double-digit growth way above their peers by designing this around clients, where the investments become the consequence of financial advice. It is not only their growth that is striking: in the most recent financial report, Quirin Privatbank published their Net Promoter Score for the first time, hitting an all-time high.

The next question is whether Swiss wealth managers will continue polishing the old model, or finally reimagine advice around what truly matters: the client’s life goals.

Read the original article here.