Historically, our WealthTech Matters events have taken place in the UK, but we are thankful for the opportunity of expanding the series to Switzerland. This first Swiss-focused event with Owen James Events was sponsored by InvestCloud and Dorsum, and hosted at Google, Zürich.
The event took place at the end of Q4 2023, and encouraged industry professionals to dive into their business processes, to in turn explore the core issues wealth management firms are currently facing. Not only that, but participants discussed ways in which technology can have a transformative effect in strategically driving a business forward to position it for long-term success.
The event was supported by a scene-setter questionnaire designed to provide a finger on the pulse of what the community is thinking, including the areas that are the biggest concerns, priorities for strategic development, barriers to productivity, and partnerships.
If you want to relive the insightful discussions, or if you missed the event, here is an overview of some of the key findings and their discussion points. You can download or read the full, detailed, summary here.
THE EVENT AT A GLANCE
The initial discussion, ‘Research driven - how to use Machine Learning and Generative AI to drive investment recommendations at scale,’ was led by Dr. Boris Rankov, Head of Product Strategy International (EMEA and APAC), at InvestCloud. It looked at various topics around artificial intelligence (AI) and its application in the wealth management industry. The roundtable found that the opportunities and challenges of leveraging AI, as well as the capabilities of large language models like GPT-3, are many.
The second session, ‘Informed decisions – the platforms and services making the biggest impact on wealth managers,’ was led by Christian Jedlicka, CSO, Etops Group. It covered the role that AI in its various guises can play in supporting relationship managers and advisers in wealth management. The roundtable identified quick wins for digital innovation such as automated meeting summaries or sales intelligence, as both have the potential to deliver significant value without high risk or cost.
The third session, ‘Value adding – adapting to the world of enhanced client experience,’ was led by Edward Turner, Private Banker, Dreyfus Sons & Co Ltd., Banquiers. It built upon digital innovation and AI as a support to the adviser. It then looked at changes in wealth management and factors impacting the client experience. During this session, the human dimension was widely recognised as critical in wealth management as human personalities and needs are changing. Trust is also a key ‘why’ in wealth management.
The importance of the opportunity afforded by Al, as well as the importance of retaining the human connection, were both identified in the scene setter. Indeed, Al to help advisers offer a much more personalised and contextualised service was a highlight. Al and the potential for BigTechs and FinTechs to threaten the current model of wealth management was also acknowledged. As such there is a clear need for wealth managers to harness Al to underpin, but not replace, the service provided by the human adviser and in doing so, ward off the potential threat of clients taking their business elsewhere.
‘Sustainable solutions - responding to evolving client behaviours and values,’ meanwhile, underlined the need to meet and exceed client expectations. This is particularly important in the context of the ‘Great Wealth Transfer’ and was the focus of the fourth roundtable.
This session was led by Edward Turner, Private Banker, Dreyfus Sons & Co Ltd., Banquiers and facilitated by Simon Minder, Family Office Adviser, M76 - Family Office Consulting. The discussion focused on challenges related to sustainability and ESG investing for wealth management. The conservative nature of private banks, lack of clear standards and definitions around sustainability, and reconciling different client preferences, remain a concern.
The fifth session ‘Partnership potential - innovation without reputational compromise,’ covered various aspects of partnerships between financial institutions and FinTech companies - the importance of trust and finding the right firm to partner with to solve a pain point were both emphasised. There was agreement that partnerships are critical in financial services. The session was led by Cotyso Bodea, Chief Technology Officer, Everon, and Brice Zanetti, Chief Relationship Officer at Everon.
The scene-setter findings echoed this sentiment with 89% of wealth managers wanting to partner to up their front-end technology offering while 44% wanted help with risk analytics. Marketing support was cited by 33%. Again, this reiterates the awareness that the service proposition itself needs to exceed client expectations if the wealth managers are to retain clients.
The Zürich event therefore had a strong focus on the need to meet and exceed client experience and the ways in which technology can underpin the adviser’s efforts - making for a happy client that is not only sticky, but adds to the share of wallet with the adviser. That is not to say that wealth managers are trying to ringfence their clients to ward off competition. Indeed, there is widespread acceptance of the value that a collaborative approach with third-party vendors can bring in terms of improving the service and its delivery, and we should expect to see such an ecosystem-based technology approach develop further.
Stay informed, stay ahead, and shape the future of wealth management. We invite you to read and download the full summary paper for WealthTech Matters – Switzerland here.
We hope you find value in this paper and look forward to continuing to bring you more insight into technology and wealth management in the future.
ABOUT WEALTHTECH MATTERS
Owen James Events and The Wealth Mosaic have collaborated to create a series of triannual events for key decision makers from the private wealth industry.
Technology is core to the future wealth management model, but in an increasingly specialist technology environment, wealth managers must engage with a deeper knowledge and understanding of what technology is available and can deliver across the three main areas of their business: their clients, their advisers and staff and their business processes.
WealthTech Matters focuses on these three themes to help delegates discover and discuss the technology solutions that will solve the key challenges facing their business.
You can read more about the WealthTech matters event series here.
ABOUT OWEN JAMES EVENTS
Owen James Events seeks to provide a platform for strategic engagement: an opportunity for key individuals to discuss and understand the business and investment issues which are affecting the whole of their industry. The end game is to enable firms to do better business - commercially, intelligently, and ethically.
Find out more at www.owenjamesevents.com
