We are pleased to announce the publication of From survival to reinvention: the new playbook for technology spend in wealth management, produced in partnership with FA Solutions and IAWMC.
We conducted interviews with leading executives in the world of wealth management, including large established players, boutique firms, UK institutions with access to group-wide infrastructure from their foreign parents, and smaller, tech-driven challengers.
We found common themes about how firms are thinking about the past, present, and future of their investment on technology infrastructure. This paper sets those themes in the context of broader industry research, with the ambition of giving wealth management leaders a clear framework to evaluate their technology spending today and tomorrow.
The changing landscape of technology infrastructure spending
Technology is changing faster in the wealth management world than it ever has before, and the past five years in particular have seen a sea-change in how wealth management understands technology and its potential.
Although prompted at first by the urgent, keep-the-lights-on investments firms had to make at the outset of the Covid-19 pandemic, it has since then pushed forward as the rise of generative AI, machine learning, and predictive analytics opened up new prospects.
Now, technology infrastructure spend is being driven not just by competition within the wealth management sector, but by the expectations of seamless integration of digital and human advice held by the next generation of clients set to inherit wealth. Those expectations are not coming from other wealth management firms, but from Big Tech. Regulatory expectations also mean that certain infrastructure spending items are now non-negotiable.
Technology investment isn’t a question of ‘if’ but ‘how’. Firms are increasingly relying on external vendors for non-differentiating capabilities like cybersecurity, but keeping their differentiators in-house. They are prioritising client-facing investments, but also using technology to empower advisers through tools like digital dashboards, AI-driven risk alerts, and CRM systems that integrate behavioural and transactional data.
How wealth management needs to adapt
As executives plan their future investments, a few key themes emerge.
The discussion now starts with business objectives, rather than spending on technology for its own sake. Rather than monolithic, end-to-end systems, wealth managers are increasingly adopting modular, API-driven architectures that reduce dependence on single vendors and allow them to plug in best-of-breed solutions. There’s a pressing need for better data quality, and a demand for the human talent that allows firms access to the best data science.
The upsurge in technology spending began during the Covid-19 emergency as firms digitised to survive. Now, it’s about aligning investment to strategy, ROI, and client experience.
But the far-sighted see another model coming, based on modular architectures, AI adoption, and data-driven personalisation. They see technology as a growth engine, not an overhead.
They’re building flexible, data-rich systems that adapt to rapid innovation. And they’re recognising the new human skills bases this new technology requires. They’re also recognising the cultural change that’s needed within the wealth management world. The firms that adapt to this new reality, and make sure that every penny of technology spend matters, are the ones that thrive in the years to come.
Interested in reading ‘From survival to reinvention: the new playbook for technology spend in wealth management’? You can read the white paper online here.
About the WealthTech Insight Series (WTIS)
This research is part of The Wealth Mosaic’s WealthTech Insight Series (WTIS), an ongoing and
developing research process, mixing online surveys and interviews, and focused exclusively on technology in the wealth management sector across the world.
Rather than a one-off research process, the WTIS will seek to build an ongoing program of research among wealth managers of different types across the world on a broad range of technology and related topics, building up an aggregated knowledge base of both qualitative views and perspectives as well as quantitative data points.
Discover our white paper collection!
- Managing model portfolios on multiple platforms – read here
- Productivity and growth in wealth management – read here
- The quest to become the best – becoming the trusted wealth coach and adviser – read here
- The role of technology for recruitment and retention within wealth management – read here
- The European wealth playbook for growth – read 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!
