This panel covered the drivers of customer experience and the way technology underpins the offering and its delivery. It featured Christian Cebreros, Managing Partner at The Good Guys Company; Tom Williams, CEO at Point Group; Tomas Hurick, CEO at ORCA; Milica Lazik, Business Development Sr. Executive Europe at AWS; and Tamara Kostova, CEO at Velexa.

Topics covered included:

• Understanding client behaviour and driving relevant investment advice through data analytics.
• Capturing client needs and life goals through personalised content and advice.
• Expanding capabilities with partnerships to access alternative investments.
• Mastering a hybrid service provision.
• Having a secure and scalable technology infrastructure.

The panel kicked off with the acknowledgement that enhanced client experience in wealth management is more than just good products and good enough service. Indeed, today’s clients have very high expectations in terms of the service and its delivery, and to think otherwise is foolish.

But how can wealth managers provide an enhanced client experience? What are the necessary component parts? Williams explained: “The client experience is made up of a myriad of different touchpoints. Some of those are digital, some of those are analog. Some of those are a phone call, some are to do with the performance of underlying portfolios; the core business of being a wealth manager. But wrapped around that is the wider experience – how is the service delivered?”

The importance of data
Williams then dealt with the importance of data and how, no matter the type: market data, counterparty data, client behavioural data, or investment data; getting the foundations right gives the ability to feed the plethora of tools that contribute to the experience.

This works across all facets of the business; using a modular technology architecture provides flexibility to better understand clients, tailoring offerings to their exact needs and interests, and engaging via both digital and human channels - all these depend on high-quality data.

“If the technology enables you to execute a process, deliver a service, engage with a client through an application, the data that sits behind it that runs through the systems is absolutely key. Unless we get that right, we're going to have a garbage-in, garbage-out problem, and the technology tooling will not be able to perform as we would like. So, the importance of creating that data foundation with a flexible methodology where you can extract the data that you need to provide the insights is absolutely key,” said Williams.

Complex client structures and goals
Data also pertains to being able to understand complex client structures, wherever and however they are held. As well as being able to perform quality aggregation so as to have a good understanding of the whole client from multiple angles, such as growth, tax and legal, succession planning, and geography. This becomes harder the further up the wealth scale the client is and tends to involve more professionals too. Thus, providing a single, aggregated view enhances the client experience and enables the delivery of the client’s overarching life goals.

Hurick explained: “It's around the structure of the entire asset base and the fact that at a certain level, the deal structure can be more of a driver for performance than the actual performance or the fees of an investment. This complexity we see is becoming key to client experience going forward; particularly given the increasing need to pull in data that is not readily accessible - from lawyers, family members, business partners, and the like. We feel this often gets overlooked but ultimately can contribute a great deal to the overall client experience.”

Expanding digital capabilities and offerings
Kostova explored this aspect of client experience saying that the rising demand for self-directed investing capabilities is across all wealth segments. Indeed, Velexa was initially set up to meet the needs of the mass affluent, but, Kostova explains, it has since become apparent that digital self-service portals have value within the wealth management space, too.

“We see is that 85% of all ultra-high-net-worth individuals (UHNWIs) are using digital engagement channels. And because we see lots of complexity coming through in the form of different multi-asset class strategies and investments, then wealth managers need to have the right partnerships in place with alternative data vendors to include private equity, crypto, and even digital asset solutions,” Kostova says.

In the UHNWIs space, the need is for high-quality content, but, further down the value chain, the need is more around financial literacy and education – making online services available – not just to educate younger investors but also get them engaged with their advisers and begin a connected relationship based on a positive experience.

Kostova went on to talk about community; the next generation of investors now demands mobile first, digital delivery, and an approach that is more based around communities in order to access and engage with their peers. “In building a community, the wealth manager also builds trust and loyalty as well, and that's social engagement,” she says.

Secure technology to build trust
Lazik closed out the panel by saying that wealth managers and end clients alike need to have trust in the underlying technology that powers the tools and provides the foundation’s customer experience. She highlighted four technology pillars for trust - resilience, data protection, risk management, and customer experience. This latter is built on these new emerging technologies, and these cannot function without a robust infrastructure – that now generally means the Cloud.

“Systems need to be resilient and secure, and that usually means the Cloud. Another element is the bank’s ability to manage its own risk. Having data and being able to quickly see risks means that banks can work to prevent them in the first place,” she said.

The panel concluded by looking at the general direction of travel and the need to cater to the mass affluent in their wealth creation and management journey. It was acknowledged that this segment is more than willing to change providers if not satisfied and so exceeding expectations as regards provision and service around it becomes not just desirable and crucial to the future success of the wealth manager.

About the Swiss WealthTech Live 2024
Our Swiss WealthTech Live 2024 event took place in Zürich in February and hosted some 160 market participants from private banks, cantonal banks, external asset managers, family offices, technology vendors, consultants, and more to express their views, experiences, and visions for the future. We celebrated a full day of keynote presentations and panel discussions, with plenty of networking opportunities.

During the event, we also released our Swiss WealthTech Landscape Report 2024. This issue of the report includes 24 thought-provoking articles, 10 Solution Showcases, and 539 entries in our Solution Provider Directory.

Access the full report here.