For time immemorial, wealth management has been a personal business, face-to-face, relationship-based, done with paper-based reports and delivered by a human. Differentiation was about the brand, the history, the fancy address and, sitting at the top all of that weighty and longstanding reputational mass, a close and long-term personal relationship with each client. Technology was in the background and definitely not a point of differentiation.
The arrival of the digital wealth management movement over the last decade, technology-delivered and, (until more recently) without the option for any form of human relationship, ushered in a change to the way the wealth management model was sold to clients. Differentiation in this new world was about accessibility, fees, transparency, user experience, simple to market products and mass market appeal. A new form of wealth management and one that operated from the basis of a different set of differentiators from the traditional market.
However, despite the digital WM movement certainly making the traditional sector sit up, take notice and change some of its practices, the model has not taken a hold of the client opportunity for incumbents as much as early digital advocates had hoped. Looking forward from here, can the digital WM market grasp the opportunity and, if so, what will be the differentiators that will support the sector’s growth and relevance to new generations
On Thursday 23rd July at 1pm, UK time, The Wealth Mosaic Co-Founder Stephen Wall will host the next episode in our WealthTech Talks webinar series, focusing on this topic and featuring as guests Sarah Kocianski, Head of Research at 11:FS, David Joyce, CEO at Crealogix, Matt Cross, Head of B2B, EMEA at Hotwire and Dan Giddings, Head of Business Development at Wealthify.
Discussion themes will include:
- What really differentiates wealth management providers? If we look at incumbents purely through websites, are they getting this across?
- If the "human touch" is essential to current customers, is this as true for new generation customers? ... Does "trust" look a bit different as your service becomes more digital?
- To differentiate, does a wealth management firm have to create their own digital solutions?
- How can firms find the right stakeholders and leaders to move ahead with customer-facing digital services?
