Change is in the air. In 2026, the wealth management industry is facing a moment of inflection rather than continuity. At this moment, that change isn’t principally coming from the broad structural forces that have shaped the sector for years – such as demographic change and intergenerational wealth transfer, intensifying regulatory scrutiny, ongoing consolidation, shifting asset allocations, and rising client expectations. The big change underway right now is the role technology plays in responding to those forces. Technology has moved from an enabling function at the margins to a central determinant of strategy, scalability, and competitive positioning.

This year’s report reflects an industry transitioning from exploration to execution. After years of experimentation with digital platforms, cloud infrastructure, and early artificial intelligence (AI) use cases, firms are now focused on delivery: embedding technology deeply into operating models, aligning it with firm-specific strategies, and extracting measurable value. Firms are no longer asking whether to invest in technology. They are asking how to deploy it effectively, how to integrate increasingly complex technology stacks, and how to ensure return on investment in a capital-intensive and highly regulated environment.

Much of the technology discussion is about AI in particular, as we move away from the learning, pilots, and proof-of-concept initiatives that have characterised the AI space for the last few years. 2026 marks the point at which AI becomes operationally consequential. Firms are moving beyond surface-level automation and content generation towards more embedded applications across front, middle, and back office functions. This includes advisory support, portfolio insights, compliance monitoring, onboarding, and operational workflows.

But, as this WealthTech 2026 report makes clear, there are challenges ahead as we enter this phase. AI amplifies both strengths and weaknesses. Without robust data foundations, integrated systems, and coherent architectures, advanced AI capabilities remain constrained. Many firms will find their new AI-enabled technologies to be a stress test of their underlying technology and data maturity.

That makes data a foundational theme running through the entire wealth management landscape. The ability to collect, structure, govern, and activate data consistently across an organisation underpins nearly every strategic ambition – from personalisation and client experience to regulatory compliance, cybersecurity, and AI enablement. Firms that have invested in unified data strategies are increasingly able to move faster, personalise more deeply, and scale insight across their businesses. Those that have not done so face a future characterised by rising complexity and diminishing returns, as point solutions accumulate without integration.

Technology investment itself continues to rise across regions and business models, reflecting both competitive necessity and a recognition of historic underinvestment. However, the focus is becoming more disciplined. Rather than simply adding new tools, firms are reassessing their technology estates through the lenses of integration, optimisation, and strategic fit. Long-standing debates around whether to buy, build, or rent technology are evolving into more nuanced and pragmatic decisions, that are often influenced by the growing maturity of third-party platforms and the configurability enabled by modern, API-driven architectures.

Technology is also shaping and being shaped by client expectations. The more it can do, the more clients expect it can do. Yesterday’s “wow!” is tomorrow’s baseline requirement. Technology is enabling the extension of more sophisticated propositions further down the wealth spectrum, such as private markets access and family office-style services. This is reshaping both the product mix and the service models that firms can viably deliver.

Regulation and risk form an equally important part of the 2026 landscape. Cybersecurity threats are growing in sophistication alongside digitalisation and AI adoption, reinforcing the need for resilient, well-governed systems. Regulatory regimes are evolving away from an emphasis on process and towards demonstrable outcomes, increasing demand for data-driven monitoring, explainability, and repeatability at scale. Here again, technology is not merely a compliance tool but a potential source of competitive advantage for firms that build robust and outcome-focused capabilities.

Taken together, the themes in this report point to a sector at the outset of a more consequential phase of transformation. WealthTech in 2026 is no longer about experimentation or hype. It is about execution, discipline, and alignment that turns capability into advantage. In this report, you will find a range of insights from across the world of WealthTech to bring you a broad view of where this industry sits today and where it’s heading tomorrow. We open with an exploration of the Data and Insights into current spending on technology in wealth management, and go on to present our high-level view of the top trends characterising WealthTech in 2026.

The report provides a window into some of the recent thought leadership and market visualisation The Wealth Mosaic has produced – including previews of recent publications in our WealthTech Insight Series, and our well-appreciated AI Market Map. We also present an interview with Tom Wooders, UK and Ireland head of Allfunds, who speaks to the challenges and opportunities associated with accessing the alternatives market. The report contains a range of industry perspectives, showcasing thought leadership from across the WealthTech sector on themes including: the WealthTech skills gap; operating architecture; holistic wealth management; AI simulations of client behaviour; regional divergence in AI adoption; and a five-pillar approach to AI adoption. And finally, it contains a pair of solution showcases from two leading WealthTech vendors, which show how technology can help firms evidence regulatory compliance and strengthen advisory relationships.

The firms that are set to enjoy the years ahead are the ones that have prepared in the years behind. They are the ones who treat technology not as an end in itself, but as an integrated enabler of trust, relevance, and sustainable growth, in an increasingly complex and demanding wealth management environment. WealthTech 2026 marks the point at which preparation becomes performance, and where disciplined execution determines which firms convert technological capability into sustainable growth.

Interested in reading more about the state of WealthTech in 2026? You can read and download the report online here.

Data and insights
The year 2026 may become a decisive one, for technology and for its deployment and impact across the global wealth management sector. Although many elements will stay the same or evolve at a similar pace to their historical norm, the role and capabilities of technology, and in particular of Artificial Intelligence (AI), promise fundamental and potentially seismic change across the sector. If recent years have seen firms learning, exploring, and testing, 2026 might really see them deliver broad-based engagement and delivery.

At the same time, all the usual drivers of the industry’s ongoing evolution will also be at play:

• Enhanced client experience, together with expanded expectations and increasing wealth transfer;
• Compliance with new and adapted regulations;
• Changes and updates to the product and service mix;
• Portfolio allocation shifts to meet not only short-term return and risk management but also long-term trends;
• Ongoing M&A and industry consolidation;
• The shifting of the target operating model towards delivery on firms’ individual strategies.

Technology, while a standalone theme in itself, also plays a key role in the delivery of these and many other themes of change and evolution across the wealth management sector. Although a rising theme for the last decade and more, the current prominence of technology’s role in delivering, enabling, and also challenging the industry’s norms is unprecedented. 2026 might very well be a breakthrough for technology’s role across the industry and the perception of it.

Spending on technology
Although individual firms will make their own decisions, it is no surprise to hear that many across the global wealth management sector are likely to increase their spending on technology in 2026. Indeed, this is a multi-year theme, which might be due to the oft-cited criticism that the industry has not invested enough in technology over the years; or it may be a simple need for firms to invest in technology across their businesses to stay competitive and relevant in a rapidly evolving landscape.

Given the clear lack of global definitions regarding what constitutes wealth management, there is relatively little data available that captures the true global picture. It might be possible to capture data for the biggest and most international firms, but for many parts of this hugely fragmented industry – not to mention some of the tucked-away jurisdictions – spending analysis is very hard to determine. The long tail and relative diversity of wealth management players globally (financial advisers, investment managers, family offices, etc.) is also strikingly hard to cover.

That said, by pulling some elements together, we can create a broad overview.

In Celent's 2024 report, Wealth Management IT Spending Forecasts by Technology, 2023 – 2028, the analyst firm highlighted wealth management technology budgets expanding across business models, wirehouses, banks, independent broker-dealers, and registered investment advisers (RIAs). That report projected total global spending to grow steadily at a 4.5 percent CAGR over the 2023 - 2028 period, to reach a total of US$66.9 billion in 2028.

The Celent report also categorised spending, predicting that the two fastest growth areas will be services and cloud. Why? According to Celent, because both cloud computing and external services “enable cost savings, agility, and scale”. Cloud migration is a key trend, according to the Celent Technology Insight and Strategy Survey (CTISS), a supporting survey from the analyst firm, which found 63 percent of wealth management firms believing they will move more of their needs to the cloud.

With a similar growth trajectory highlighted, a recent study by the US website wealthmanagement.com found that 67 percent of wealth management firm respondents expected their technology budgets to increase in 2026, with the survey indicating an overall 3.3 percent year-on-year increase in operational technology budgets. Regarding the coming year’s technology budget, respondents were even more likely to predict an increase (79 percent) than were those in the 2023 study (68 percent).

Looking at the United Kingdom, research from BWC Benchmarking has pinpointed technology spend across the wealth management industry in the UK as having nearly trebled over the past 10 years, from £349 million (US$471.6 million) in 2014 to £909 million (US$1.2 billion) in 2024, with notable step increases since the pandemic. In 2024, the rise was as high as £175 million (US$236.5 million) compared to the previous year (a 24 percent year-on-year increase). As a percentage of revenue, this has increased from 5.9 percent in 2014 to 8.8 percent in 2024, as firms increase their focus on technology.

Turning back to the United States, but looking specifically at the RIA segment, a recent article on Investipal explored technology spending by firm size, citing research and data from the 2024 InvestmentNews Advisor Benchmarking Study and The Schwab 2025 RIA Benchmarking Study. Citing those same sources, Investipal’s article argues that US RIAs should budget an annual spend of between 3 percent and 8.4 percent of revenue for technology – similar figures to those cited by BWC Benchmarking with respect to the UK.

But, if anything, this may be underplaying things. Referencing research from Datos Insights, this article in Financial Planning suggests a far higher budget commitment from wealth and asset managers, typically between 15 percent and 20 percent of their operating budgets.

Interested in more insights about WealthTech in 2026? You can read and download the report online here.

Spending on technology – focus areas
Referring again to the recent wealthmanagement.com study referenced above, US respondents' top three areas of focus for technology spend in 2026 are: customer relationship management (CRM), financial planning, and portfolio management and reporting.

Top technology focus areas for US wealth management firms in 2026

• Customer relationship management – 34 percent
• Financial planning – 32 percent
• Portfolio management and reporting – 29 percent
• Digital marketing and prospecting – 25 percent
• Digital workflow automation – 24 percent
• Client portal – 23 percent
• Compliance – 21 percent
• Risk management – 20 percent
• Business analysis – 18 percent
• Estate planning – 15 percent
• Tax planning – 13 percent

Conclusion
Technology is no longer a supporting function or a series of disconnected tools as we begin 2026. It is now the central determinant of strategy, scalability, and long-term competitiveness for the sector as a whole. Wealth management has stopped asking itself whether to invest in technology. It is now firmly focused on how to deploy it effectively, how to extract value, and how to align it with broader business objectives.

After years of experimentation, learning, and foundational investment, many firms are entering a new phase of delivery. Data infrastructure, cloud migration, and modern platforms are increasingly in place, creating the conditions for more advanced capabilities – most notably AI – to be embedded across the operating model. AI is no longer a theoretical opportunity but a practical enabler, supporting everything from client engagement and personalisation to operational efficiency, compliance, and portfolio insights.

At the same time, technology investment is rising in tandem across different geographic markets. This reflects not only competitive necessity but also pent-up demand, after years of underinvestment. The research we have cited here highlights sustained growth in IT spending globally, with firms clearly prioritising CRM, financial planning, and portfolio management and reporting.

The challenge for firms’ technology journeys is not just the acquisition of and access to technology, but how well that technology is integrated, optimised, and turned towards ROI. As their technology stacks become more complex, and as vendor ecosystems expand, firms will have to make their infrastructure work as a coherent whole.

The year ahead will reward firms that take a pragmatic, strategic, and disciplined approach to technology. Those firms will be the ones that revisit and challenge their long-held assumptions, engage actively with the WealthTech ecosystem, and ensure that their technology initiatives are closely aligned with firm-specific strategies, rather than industry hype.

WealthTech in 2026 is about turning capability into competitive advantage. Technology ultimately is not an end in itself, but an enabler – of trust, of relevance, and of growth, in an increasingly demanding and dynamic wealth management landscape.

Discover the themes and trends shaping technology in wealth management today. Read the report here.

Deepen the conversation at WealthTech 2026: US edition

This report sets the foundation for our WealthTech 2026: US edition live event, taking place on 29 April 2026 at the New York headquarters of report contributor EY. Brought to you in partnership with EY, the US event will bring together stakeholders across the US wealth management ecosystem to deepen the report’s insights and explore the latest WealthTech trends.

Attendees will include WealthTech vendors and wealth managers representing banks, broker-dealers, credit unions, registered investment advisers, and family officers. To find out more about WealthTech 2026: US edition, read our full preview article here.

Interested in discovering more and joining us at WealthTech 2026 in New York? For more information and ticket options, click 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.

Interested in discovering more? Read our reports!

• US RIA Toolkit 2026 – read here
• Future View Toolkit 2025 – read here
• UK Toolkit 2025 – read here
• AI Toolkit 2025 – read here
• Client Experience Toolkit 2024 – read here
• US WealthTech Landscape Report 2024 – read here

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