Technological advances have made automated and digitised portfolio management possible. But the human touch in the form of the wealth manager remains important. Indeed, before digitisation and the first robo-advisers, there was no efficient and scalable offering that eased uncertainty for clients and supported them in their decision-making. Having a hybrid approach that takes in the advantages of both the technology and the human touch thus makes sense.
In the hybrid model, clients work with an adviser to define their goals and preferences, and the adviser takes care of the execution of the resulting investment strategy – using automated and digital technology. The technology aspect allows the wealth manager to provide the execution at a relatively low cost and at scale. This allows for the provision of personal service and the human touch in a cost-efficient way for the wealth management firm. Overall, it offers the opportunity to continuously create new opportunities for interaction or contact with the client. In this way, a personalised offer with the best process efficiency becomes a reality, along with reduced complexity and optimised revenue structures.
The Vontobel experience
Swiss investment and wealth manager Vontobel offers the first active digital wealth management service in Switzerland with its volt® offering. Clients can shape their portfolios to suit their preferences and benefit from the expertise of more than 300 investment experts and over 90 years of investment experience.
With volt®, the bank can offer a modular approach. In addition to an individual risk-based investment strategy, clients can, for example, also choose themes in which they would like to invest – making them feel more connected and aligned with their portfolio. Based on their selection, clients then regularly receive theme-based, curated content. Vontobel also solves proactively shares the portfolio’s performance and provides explanations for the portfolio manager’s decisions.
The assumption that personalisation and customisation are important to clients is bourne out and confirmed by user behaviour within volt®. Two-thirds of clients take up theme-based investments. On average, they select three themes.
Thus, what used to be a simple investment process now becomes personal. Something that the customer can track, shape, experience, and understand and that is highly aligned with their preferences.
You can read about more success stories in our white paper ‘Modular Portfolio Management’.
