INTRODUCTION

In this, the fourth in our Toolkit Report series, we’ve gathered a global set of perspectives from firms and thought leaders engaged in the effort to future-proof the wealth management sector: modernising its infrastructure, reimagining the adviser–client relationship, and building organisational models capable of absorbing constant change.

The Future View Toolkit 2025 describes a wealth management sector where technology is no longer just a set of tools but an entire operating environment. Artificial intelligence, in its many forms — from machine learning and generative models to emerging agentic systems — will reshape the value chain from front office engagement to back office processing.

As the contributors to this Toolkit argue, it’s the foundations beneath AI that are essential to get right: clean, connected data; coherent operating models; and governance frameworks that make automation safe, explainable, and scalable. It’s the embedding and integration of technology, not the acquisition of it, that will really make the difference between success and failure.

The importance of future readiness In the wealth management industry, preparing for the future isn’t just a good idea to stay ahead, it’s a professional imperative. Wealth managers owe a duty to their clients to foresee and prepare for future developments in both markets and technology, in order to adequately plan across a client’s entire wealth lifetime.

A wealth manager who can’t future-proof their own business doesn’t stand to future-proof their client’s prospects either. But the changes that the industry needs to plan against are accelerating, driven by technological acceleration, regulatory pressure, shifting client demographics, and rising expectations around personalisation and efficiency.

The contributors to this Toolkit argue that future-proofing the wealth management industry is less about chasing new tools and more about building durable, adaptable infrastructure. That includes modular architecture capable of evolving with new capabilities; standardised data models that eliminate the fragmentation of today’s technology stacks; and integrated platforms that replace the patchwork of single-solution applications that currently dominate wealth management.

From family offices consolidating around unified digital wealth platforms to large firms seeking to reduce cognitive and operational debt, the direction of travel is clear: long-term resilience requires simplification at the core and sophistication at the edge.

The Future View Toolkit 2025 also examines how the role of human advisers is being redefined in an increasingly automated industry. The potential for agentic AI in particular is to free advisers from administrative burdens, allowing them to engage in deeper, more strategic client conversations. The skills that differentiate human advisers — emotional intelligence, judgement, creativity, and empathy — should become more valuable, not less.

As one of our Industry Perspective articles puts it, the human adviser is ‘augmented’, operating in partnership with intelligent systems that surface insights, anticipate risks, and support complex decision-making. We also examine the evolving competitive landscape. As an emerging generation of heirs are demanding immediacy, transparency, and mobile-native experiences, firms must rethink how they deliver value. Embedded wealth is one response, extending financial products into the digital ecosystems where clients already spend their time. This not only opens new distribution channels but also lowers barriers to engagement, offering a path toward financial inclusion and more personalised client journeys.

Family offices face their own future-proofing challenges. With growing scale, rising complexity, and heightened expectations across generations, they must confront the inefficiencies the sector has so far tolerated.

Increasingly, they will find that integrated platforms, intelligent automation, and clearer governance structures are essential to maintaining control, reducing operational drag, and preparing for succession. The operational models of the quiet past can no longer support the ambitions of the stormy present — let alone the unknown future.

The future of wealth management belongs to firms that can harmonise intelligence, whether that be human or artificial. It belongs also to those that can mobilise operational and organisational effectiveness. Technology alone cannot future-proof the sector, but technology embedded within clear operating models, strong governance, and a client-centred philosophy can redefine what the industry is capable of.

The Future View Toolkit 2025 invites readers to look beyond the hype cycles and examine the structural transformations required to build wealth management businesses that are resilient, scalable, and relevant for decades to come. It paints a picture not of disruption for its own sake, but of purposeful evolution: an industry redesigning itself to meet the demands of a more complex, digital, and interconnected world.

Ready to dive into the report and discover more about the Future View Toolkit 2025? You can read and download the report online here.

DATA INSIGHTS

Change across the global wealth management landscape is now a constant feature of the sector, and that change runs broad and deep. Name an aspect of the industry: clients, advisers, staff, products, services, regulation, competition, financial, fees, culture, leadership; it is all in motion, at least compared to what was the industry’s historic norm.

Wealth management has long transmitted a culture of stability, tradition, and conservatism among many of its participants. Indeed, those characteristics have been what its clients expected from their wealth manager. First and foremost, don’t lose their money! Stable growth is better than shooting the lights out.

That mantra might still be the case but beneath the surface, industry participants are having to move faster to keep up with competitive pressures, think more about their strategic positioning and development, and apply a responsiveness to challenges and opportunities to more areas of their business than ever before.

To future-proof their businesses, wealth managers have a lot to focus on. And underpinning many of their decisions today will be questions related to their technology infrastructure.

In the pages that follow, we have highlighted some of the main areas of change, and issues to consider in future-proofing a wealth management business.

1. Global wealth levels.

Wealth is growing globally.

According to the UBS Global Wealth Report 2023, total global household wealth in 2022 was estimated at US$454.4 trillion. The same report series has not provided an update to this figure since; however, based on average annual growth rates, the latest figure is believed to be in the range of US$490 trillion to US$500 trillion. According to McKinsey’s global balance sheet analysis, the figure is US$600 trillion.

Citing sources such as UBS, McKinsey, and Boston Consulting Group, annual growth is between four percent and seven percent. This means that, if those growth rates continue, total global wealth will measure between US$6.24 trillion (five years at four per cent) and US$8.42 trillion (five years at seven percent).

Looking geographically, although wealth is global, according to the UBS research, there is a concentration in two markets — the United States with 35 percent of the global total and mainland China with 20 percent.

As with total wealth levels, the total number of clients will, of course, rise too. According to the UBS Global Wealth Report 2025, there will be over 5 million new millionaires by 2029.

For the industry, despite the geographic concentration, the data highlights a continued growth in both wealth levels and in numbers of wealthy individuals. There are more people to target and service, and they have more money to manage. It’s a good equation for the wealth management sector.

2. Clients

The nature and detail of wealth clients is changing. Although the number and assets of individuals for the industry to engage and service have continued to grow, those clients are no longer as homogeneous as they once were.

Looking deeper into the trends among the wealth management industry’s client base, we can highlight a range of increasingly dynamic characteristics, including:

Who has the money: Wealth will be held by a broader range of individuals going forward. In particular, the following themes emerge:

• Global private wealth will be held in younger hands, with millennials and Gen Z controlling the majority.
• Women will also hold a much higher proportion of global wealth. Although women hold about 33 percent of the world’s wealth, according to BCG, they are expected to be the greatest beneficiaries of the Great Wealth Transfer.
• More wealth will be held by entrepreneurs and those in new industries, including in technology, entertainment, social media, and so on.
• Segments with names like ‘Everyday Millionaires’ (EMILLIs – those with investable assets between US$1–5 million) as identified by the UBS Global Wealth Report 2025, are on the rise.
• Analysis by Cerulli suggests US$124 trillion in wealth will transfer to inheritors through to 2048 as part of the Great Wealth Transfer.
• Wealth management will be increasingly available to younger generations and less wealthy client segments through digital propositions.

What do wealth holders want?

The expectations of wealth holders today and those over the next 10 years are also different to what has gone before, including:

• Personalisation: clients want tailored strategies that fit with not only with their financial needs and expectations, but also their values and identity.
• Planning: clients expect greater interaction around their major life events, as well as broader access to planning capabilities, including estate, tax, insurance, giving, legacy, and so on.
• Digital-first approaches: as available in myriad other areas of their lives, clients increasingly expect a digital experience and capability to be available.
• Transparency: In relation to fees, products, investment performance, and so on.
• Values-driven outlooks: aligning wealth with purpose, incorporating aligned investment offerings that support impact and ESG.

Although the numbers are good, the complexity of clients is increasing. Who they are, how they see themselves, how to reach, engage and service them, who they want to be served by, and many other elements, are all now at play.

Building a wealth management firm to serve both the clients of today and those of tomorrow’s is more complex and requires a broader set of skills, products, and services than historically.

3. People and leadership

As clients are changing, so too must the people in wealth management and the industry’s leadership. The industry is shifting from a heavily relationship-driven and product-centric business model to one that is more digital, data-driven and personalised. That shift, together with a changing client base and widening product and service mix, dictates a new set of skills.

Across the industry’s people and leadership, the following dynamics are at play:

• Adviser retirement: The average age of advisers in key markets like the UK and US is widely seen to be nearing retirement. These individuals need to be replaced, and the skills they hold need to evolve to the future needs of the marketplace.
• Professionalisation/specialisation: Historically, the adviser/private banker was seen as a largely relationship role, not focused on specific skills. As the market delivers a more professional and personalised offering, there is a greater need for skills such as paraplanning, compliance, digital technology, data, private markets, and much more.
• Technological capability: The industry’s workforce needs to be increasingly technology-capable and enabled to work with clients and be more efficient in their roles.
• Training and upskilling: The industry will focus more emphasis and expectation on training and upskilling staff, including in areas such as:
  • Technology and data, including the various areas of Artificial Intelligence (AI) data analysis, compliance automation, workflow automation, client interaction, and cyber security.
  • Soft skills, including relationship management, communication and interpersonal skills, empathy and emotional intelligence.

Industry leaders, meanwhile, need a far broader and deeper grasp of key industry topics outside of traditional relationship management and plain-vanilla product areas.

Ready to dive into the report and discover more about the Future View Toolkit 2025? You can read and download the report online here.

4. Products and services

The product and service offering across the industry is fast evolving, too. Once-distinct business models, such as financial planning versus investment management, are increasingly converging. The landscape reflects changing client expectations and is therefore more complex.

Looking into the changing nature of products and services, elements in play include:

• Advisory: An area that fully reflects the increased complexity of the offering, as well as the needs of clients, is advisory. And not just financial advisory, but also advisory related to health, longevity, education, and legacy. In the financial area, specifically, there is more emphasis around asset allocation, spending, financial planning, and giving.
• Financial planning: This sub-set of advisory is growing in emphasis across the market, responding to clients who want not only personalisation but also support across the major planning areas cited above.
• Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG): Again, closely related to the changing expectations of clients, ESG is firmly on the agenda with wealth managers expected to deliver advice, products, portfolios, and reporting that reflect ESG perspectives.
• Alternatives and private markets: The so-called democratisation of investment assets that were previously only available to ultra-high net worth clients. A wide range of alternative and private market investment options is being made available to lower-value wealth management clients through platforms. These include private equity, private credit, venture capital, real estate, art, infrastructure assets, and much more.
• Crypto and tokenisation: Similarly, the direct availability of crypto assets is now on the radar of some wealth managers, as are tokenisation and fractionalisation.
• Family offices: As the business model of firms continues to evolve, they are also looking to evolve into broader areas of ‘wealth’, meaning supporting needs like philanthropy, education, wellness, business, corporate services, and more.

Although some wealth management firms might stick to a traditional product and service model, the industry as a whole is evolving into a more complex product and service offering to meet the needs and expectations of tomorrow’s client base as well as today’s.

5. Portfolio allocation

Similarly, the portfolio allocations of wealth management firms for their clients are also shifting.

According to the Natixis Wealth Management Outlook for 2025, a moderate-risk portfolio is broken down into: 44 percent equities, 33 percent fixed income, 17 percent alternatives, five percent cash, and one percent other. The picture today is fairly straightforward; equities dominate, but other asset classes play a role.

However, there is a clear shift in play: asset classes like alternatives and private market assets are on the rise as firms seek to move away from the traditional 60/40 model. The industry and its clients are looking for more non-correlated assets, greater portfolio diversification, a higher return potential than they see in public equities and other traditional asset classes, clear risk mitigation strategies, and so on.

The shift in portfolio allocations is also driven by factors such as ethical alignment, long-term legacy, thematic investing (AI, bio, green, ageing, etc.), as well as trends around technology-driven advisory tools where AI is taking the lead. The market is in motion.

Concerning alternatives and private markets, some headline data points to consider include:

• Private wealth investors, on average, allocate 22.6 percent to alternatives (Investment
• Family offices, on average, allocate 21 percent of their portfolio to private equity
• Bain estimates that private wealth holders will allocate US$12 trillion to alternatives by 2034, up from US$4 trillion today.
• According to Hamilton Lane’s 2025 private wealth adviser survey, 56 percent of advisers plan to increase private markets allocation, with infrastructure topping the list for increases in 2025.

Looking forward, the move away from a traditional 60/40 split will see greater emphasis on:

• Private markets
• Alternatives
• Real estate
• Digital assets
• Thematic investing
• ESG and impact
• Niche and passion investments
• Technology-enabled investing 

6. Business models

As the sector at large is changing, individual wealth management firms need to consider a range of options in terms of their business models.

As highlighted above, this includes their target client types and their product and service offerings, but it also includes other factors like ownership, partnerships and collaborations, consolidation, and pricing and revenue models. Overall, there is pressure for the business models to shift from asset-centric and opaque to client-centric, transparent, and technology-enabled.

Breaking this down, here are other areas of consideration when it comes to the business models of wealth management firms.

Revenue models. Firms need to consider:

• Moving from assets under management (AUM) to outcome-based fees
• Bringing in subscription and membership pricing models
• Introducing family office-as-a-service models to bring those services further down the wealth pyramid
• Crafting more flexible fee models, perhaps blended and usage-based, better mapped to the preferences of the client
• Tokenised pricing
• Making more accessible digital wealth-style pricing available Consolidation and M&A

Consolidation and M&A. Firms need to be aware of:

• Private equity-backed consolidators continuing to snap up smaller players
• Larger players emerging to compete with the industry’s behemoths
• The ongoing role of specialist players and independent boutiques
• Further technology developments enabling the independent model

Human versus machine. Firms need to consider:

• How to blend the delivery of services between humans and machines
• Giving clients more self-service engagement options

Embedded finance/wealth. Firms stand to take advantage of:

• Wealth management embedding its services into related industries such as retail banking, real estate, art and collectables, healthcare, and so on
• The potential of ecosystems/platforms that support a client’s broader life and wealth needs

Democratisation of wealth services. Firms should consider:

• Delivering fractional investing
• Enabling their clients’ greater access to alternative and private market assets
• Facilitating automated estate planning
• Subscription-based advisory pricing
• AI-driven, subscription-accessible insights
• Subscription-accessible, personalised wealth journeys and plans

Although many of the fundamentals of wealth management might remain — such as supporting the financial needs of clients through advice, planning and safe custody of their assets — much else around the industry is being reshaped by the possibilities and threats of technology, the changing nature of clients and demographics, and the role and expectations of regulation. Business models will continue to evolve as these drivers shape the industry.

7. Technology

Technology underpins the future of the wealth management industry. To support the future-proofing of the industry, ongoing investment in its technology infrastructure is critical.

Simply put, firms will not be able to deliver everything that is expected of them by clients, advisers, other employees, leadership, investors, and regulators without a significant emphasis on their technological underpinning.

There are many elements to this, but headline topics in play now include:

Modernisation

• Wealth managers are looking to adopt more modern infrastructure, including cloud platforms and AI tools, to support more flexible, responsive and efficient operations. These systems promise streamlined operations, more real-time insights, and support industry goals like adviser efficiency and hyper-personalisation.
• In the context of AI, this means many different things but includes concepts and tools like AI copilots and 24/7 advisory through conversational AI.
• For agentic AI, specifically, the routes to delivery include autonomous support in areas like portfolio monitoring, goal-based planning, investment research, decision support, data reconciliation, report creation, trade workflows, risk and compliance (KYC monitoring, suitability reports, etc.), and so on.

Distribution and engagement

• Digital platforms and robo-advisory services allow firms to not only reach further into segments that were historically underserved and inaccessible, but also support the distribution of products and services and the engagement of existing client bases.

Hybrid

• The industry wants to marry the best of its human-touch, personalised service model, with the best of technology tools. This is seen as a win-win. Clients get better access when, where, and how they want. The adviser can service more clients effectively. The business can scale more efficiently.

Cybersecurity

• On the agenda for many firms, with the increasing openness and connectivity of technology, is cybersecurity. Firms will want to protect against data breaches, identity theft, fraud, phishing, ransomware, insider threats, and third-party risks, among other threats. At an individual technology level, at an infrastructure level and relating to people, behaviour and training, cybersecurity must be in mind. A market-leading cybersecurity operation can even be considered a point of differentiation in the modern era of wealth management.

Data

• Data is the foundation. Firms have lots of data, so they say, but it’s in different places, formats, and systems. Accessing a single view of data to support much of what has been highlighted above, including things like client personalisation, is a huge project for the industry, but one it needs to get done.

Integration

• System integration is an increasing challenge for firms, with a potential spaghetti dish of suppliers and systems in place to run all aspects of their business. A lack of integration is a potentially serious vulnerability.

There is more, and we are sure our readers will be able to add to this in various ways. What is undeniable is that technology will play a fundamental role in the delivery and futureproofing of the wealth management sector, wherever in the world you are looking.

Summary

The picture that emerges from these data points is of an industry that can no longer rely on its inherited assumptions. Wealth management has traditionally been guided by stability. That means steady markets, predictable client profiles, long-established service models, and gradual technological evolution. That context has vanished.

It isn’t a single disruptive force that’s defining the sector now, but a convergence of them: demographic turnover, new forms of wealth creation, expanding client expectations, and rapid product innovation; add to these the tricky balance of human judgement with digital capability.

Future-proofing, therefore, is neither an abstract ambition nor a distant strategic exercise. It is the organising principle behind every meaningful decision a wealth manager must make. The sector is being shaped by multiple forces at once: resilience will come not from reacting to individual trends, but from understanding the interplay between them.

The industry is also becoming more layered. Wealth managers are serving a broader spectrum of clients, with different priorities, backgrounds, and sources of wealth. Younger generations expect a more participatory relationship with their finances. Women are set to command a growing share of global wealth. Certain types of clients, such as entrepreneurs and creators, bring their own liquidity dynamics and sometimes idiosyncratic flavours of risk appetite. These shifts require firms to build propositions that are far more nuanced, modular, and flexible than those of the past.

At the same time, the capabilities required within firms are changing. Wealth management is no longer sustained solely by relationship skills and investment knowledge. It now demands fluency in data, comfort with automation, confidence using new analytical tools, and the ability to orchestrate services across widening ecosystems. Leadership, too, must adapt: not only to guide teams through change, but to make strategic choices in an environment where the boundary between financial services and technology continues to blur.

It also makes clear that the definition of ‘wealth management’ itself is expanding. Products and services that once sat at the margins, such as private markets, alternatives, thematic strategies, tokenised assets, and broader life-planning advisory, are becoming more prevalent features of client demand. As these offerings grow more diverse, firms must find ways to maintain coherence, by aligning advice, risk management, and reporting across portfolios that are increasingly eclectic.

Technology is no longer merely infrastructure. It is the medium through which firms deliver value, pace their operations, safeguard trust, and differentiate themselves. But modernisation is not simply about adopting technology. It is also about untangling legacy systems, creating unified data foundations, strengthening cyber resilience, and ensuring that human expertise remains at the heart of the client experience.

The forces we describe here point toward a deep reconstruction of the wealth management industry. The firms best positioned for the years to come will be those that accept this complexity rather than resist it. They are the ones who are willing to rethink roles, redesign processes, broaden their service models, invest in people, and build technology foundations that allow them to evolve continuously.

The future of wealth management will not reward complacency. It will reward adaptability, clarity of purpose, and the courage to redesign the familiar.

What we’ve described here is the beginning of what transformation looks like — and why it must begin now.

About the Future View Toolkit 2025

The Future View Toolkit 2025 focuses on the ways in which the wealth management industry across the world is future-proofing itself amid technological change, increasing compliance demands, advanced client expectations, and new operational models.

It features contributions from a total of nine industry participants, all bringing different perspectives to the challenges and opportunities that come with the future-proofing of this sector. Among these are six contributors from technology vendors, who have each contributed a topic-focused Showcase profiling an individal solution.

Our broader Toolkit Report Series covers thematic, geography and wealth manager segment-focused reports, each tasked with delving into the topics and supporting technologies of relevance to help wealth managers of all types better understand how they should bring technology into their business and in which areas.

Next in the series, we are looking at the US Registered Investment Advisor market in our US RIA Toolkit – discover more here

About The Wealth Mosaic

The Wealth Mosaic is a UK-headquartered online solution provider directory and knowledge resource, focused specifically on the wealth management industry.

For wealth managers, the buy side of our marketplace, The Wealth Mosaic is designed to enable discovery of key solutions, solution providers and knowledge resources by specific business needs.

For solution providers and vendors, the sell side of our marketplace, The Wealth Mosaic exists to support the positioning, exposure and business development needs of these firms in a more complex and demanding market.

For more information, visit: www.thewealthmosaic.com

Discover our latest reports!

• US RIA Toolkit 2025 – read here
• Future View Toolkit 2025 – read here
• UK Toolkit 2025 – read here
• European WealthTech Landscape Report 2025 – read here
• AI Toolkit 2025 – read here
• Client Experience Toolkit 2024 – read here

Join our community and follow us on LinkedIn here.