The foundation of The Wealth Mosaic began in 2014 as I was walking through the mountains of Vorarlberg, Austria. I got to thinking: the wealth management market was changing, access to knowledge was limited, technology’s role was increasing role, traditional sources of information were becoming outdated, and the market was clearly in need of fresh, accessible resources.
Mix in some personal and career elements with that market change, and the stage was set for The Wealth Mosaic.
A changing wealth management industry
Let’s start at the top. Wealth management is changing – faster, more fundamentally, and with greater and more sustained impact than anything the industry has ever witnessed before. The current artificial intelligence (AI) noise is the latest, and maybe strongest, indicator and driver of change. But change has been building for over a decade.
As I wrote last year, there are eight core areas of change:
- Clients
- Advisers
- Skills
- Business
- Financial
- Technology and data
- Products and services
- Regulation
What was clear when we launched in 2017 is even clearer now. The scale of change is amplified, but so is the opportunity for wealth management businesses.
The role of third-party providers
To deliver on the industry’s full set of needs, to service its clients, to run its business, to maintain its competitiveness, to remain compliant, and so much more, firms must work with a wide variety of third-party providers. Long gone are the days when everything is done in-house. That might remain a preference in some areas and is indeed a strength for some parts of the business. But wealth managers need to engage with third-party service providers (vendors) across many aspects of their business.
A wealth management firm is like a supermarket. They are the display, the brand that attracts the client, the people that have the relationships – but much of their core product is sourced from, run through, administered by, delivered by, a third-party provider.
No wealth management firm excels at everything. Whether it means consultants, recruitment, marketing, technology, regulatory compliance, or investment solutions, wealth management firms rely on a marketplace of vendors to support their needs.
Historically, access to those vendors has been fragmented – driven by word of mouth, recommendations, search, publishers, consultants, events, and random meetings. None of these provides a quick, easy and comprehensive view of the provider marketplace.
Increasingly, engaging with the right supplier is also a regulatory topic. It’s definitely a risk and reputational topic. It has to be done properly, so why cut corners?
The Wealth Mosaic was built to solve this.
Interested in reading more about the foundation of The Wealth Mosaic? Mosaic I is available to read in full here.
A comprehensive vendor directory
Our vendor directory is the core of what we offer to the market. It is a single place, accessible to all, to discover all relevant vendors and their relevant offerings to their industry. Global, comprehensive, online, research-led, it is open to everyone regardless of size, market, budget, age of business.
No one was doing this– because it’s hard! – but it needed to be done. Before TWM, no-one had a clear view of what offerings were available in the market. Any directories that did exist in the market were afterthoughts or limited in scope or access or reach. Some were paper-based. Some were behind high paywalls or tied to consulting fees. Nothing was well-designed. Some were tied to awards. All were incomplete.
TWM set out to be directory-first, research-led, freely accessible, continuously updated, and comprehensive. In a market shaped by misinformation, it is designed as a source of truth. That is where our global vendor directory comes in.
A research-led mindset
Another key principle is to be research-led. We do not sit back and wait for the market to find us. We must explore the market, find new providers, update existing directory entries, track who is active, and discover new solutions. Building a useful directory is not a ‘one-shot and done’ effort – it is a regular exercise of build, maintenance, and development.
That process of exploring the market ensures that our directory develops into a more powerful resource for the industry in the future. Our plans to develop it are ambitious, and they require us to have our eyes and ears open to what is happening in the marketplace.
Delivered online and global in focus
This type of resource must be delivered online: there is no other way. It needs to be dynamic, backed by a tagging system that allows for a wide range of criteria.
TWM is more of a digital marketplace than a directory. Its vendor pages function as microsites built especially for our members. It is a deep, digital resource, built to support searching, and offers users a view into the businesses and solutions that are relevant to their needs.
Where we are heading with TWM is far beyond a set of listings: think more like Airbnb than the yellow pages.
I also always built TWM to be global. Although it supports local markets and segments, it does so with a global view. By being global, we can also better support those many vendors that are multi-country, multi-segment, and multi-topic.
Although markets differ, the basic trends at play and our eight drivers of change are basically the same in each. Our eight drivers of change are all at play.
Built for wealth management
TWM is dedicated to and focused on wealth management. The industry is changing, and it is complex. While it might overlap with several other sectors, it requires dedicated resources and a purpose-built marketplace, not something dropped in from another sector.
Accessible to all, limited to none
Accessibility is central. Too many other knowledge resources are inaccessible or simply outdated. TWM is online, comprehensive, and global, intended to function as an accessible industry resource.
The accessibility principle is true for both sides of our marketplace – wealth managers as the consumers and solution providers as the vendors. They both need a resource that is accessible – one for discovery and learning and the other for advertising and positioning.
Everything about TWM has accessibility at its heart. Our directory is built on both free and paid profiles; our annual membership is cheaper than a single business class flight; our products and services start at a low price point and offer variety based on budgets.
Strength in our community
I built The Wealth Mosaic as a community. It’s not about restricting access to those able to pay the highest fees. It’s about serving an industry formed of many types of firms, of all shapes and sizes, and recognising they all have a role to play. They are all part of the Mosaic – the many pieces that come together to form the whole.
Professionals in this industry engage with The Wealth Mosaic to position, to sell, to inform, to learn, to connect, to attend events, or to seek service providers: we have built an offering that allows them to do all those things cost-efficiently and consistently.
Increasingly, it will be our community that will also shape our development. How do they want the directory to develop? What topics should we focus on? Which markets should we be in? What resources should we develop?
Today and into the future
The Wealth Mosaic is on a journey full of learning, development, ideas, mistakes, and progress. We are still only at the foot of the mountain. We have our all-weather gear on, we know the route up – but we’ve still got to climb it!
Our vision for the future is still founded on each of the elements I have described above. They are our founding principles. Nothing I have seen in the market since I founded the business has changed that. If anything, the change we are seeing in wealth management simply reinforces what we are doing, our principles, and our direction of travel.
The wealth management sector needs The Wealth Mosaic and resources like it. What you see from us now is just the start.
Interested in reading more about the news, insights, and trends shaping wealth management today? Mosaic I is available to read in full here.
Want to feature in Mosaic II?
Work on Mosaic II: Summer 2026 is already underway. If you would like to feature in the next edition, you can discover the range of contribution options available 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!
- WealthTech 2026 – read here
- 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
Join our community and follow us on LinkedIn here.
