An extract from The Wealth Mosaic’s recently published white paper, From survival to reinvention: the new playbook for technology spend in wealth management, published in partnership with FA Solutions and IAWMC.

Yesterday — laying the foundations

Covid-19 was a once-in-a-generation shock that exposed the fragility of wealth management’s traditional infrastructure. Before 2020, many firms had postponed digital investment, relying on in-person interactions, physical documentation, and siloed systems. When lockdowns began, those firms were forced into a rapid — and often painful — digital transformation.

Remote enablement

The first wave of spend was directed at enabling remote work and digital servicing. Firms invested in secure collaboration tools, cloud-based productivity suites, and video conferencing capabilities. Advisers who had relied on office-based systems needed secure access from home, while clients demanded virtual access to their portfolios.

Legacy challenges

Legacy IT proved a major barrier. According to PwC’s Digital Banking Survey 2023, a significant proportion of UK wealth managers still operate on more than 10 separate IT systems, many of them incompatible (PwC, 2023). Integration and transformation became unavoidable investment areas.

Compliance drivers

At the same time, compliance costs rose. The FCA’s increased scrutiny on client suitability, reporting, and risk management meant firms had to invest in automated compliance monitoring, document management, and regulatory reporting systems. According to Thomson Reuters’ 2023 Cost of Compliance report, 74 percent of financial institutions globally expected their regulatory compliance budgets to rise year-on-year.

Early cloud adoption

Covid-19 also accelerated the shift to the cloud. Although adoption remained uneven, with many firms reluctant to abandon legacy infrastructure, the scalability and resilience that cloud platforms offered became increasingly attractive. In 2022 McKinsey estimated that financial services firms could reduce infrastructure costs by up to 30 percent through cloud migration.

The continuing push toward automation

Automation became a survival tool. From straight-through processing of transactions to digital onboarding, firms sought efficiency without compromising the personalised service that defines wealth management. The challenge since has been in striking the balance between digital convenience and human trust.

In summary, the Covid-19 era marked the transition from ‘technology as overhead’ to technology as essential infrastructure. But most spend during this period was reactive, focused on business continuity rather than strategic growth.

Today — strategic alignment of spend

Fast-forward to 2025, and the narrative around technology investment has shifted significantly. Firms are no longer spending primarily to maintain operations, but to differentiate, grow, and drive ongoing ROI. Indeed, recent research has suggested that IT budgets in wealth management will increase: 79 percent of wealth managers surveyed in 2024 planned to increase their tech budgets that year. Given the potential increase in spend, it is critical to align budgets to areas of greatest potential impact and return.

"Technology has to be agile. It should be easy to update, simple to extend, and ultimately laser-focused on one outcome: delivering a better client experience."

ROI and optimisation of past investments

Executives consistently noted the need to extract maximum value from pandemic-era transformation programmes. Many firms spent heavily between 2020 and 2022 but did not fully realise the benefits. Today’s focus is on optimisation: driving adoption among advisers, integrating data flows, and ensuring platforms deliver measurable returns.

Client-first digital touchpoints

Clients increasingly expect seamless digital experiences. According to Capgemini’s World Wealth Report 2023, 45 percent of high-net-worth individuals globally are dissatisfied with their providers’ digital capabilities. In the UK, wealth managers are prioritising spend on client-facing platforms — from mobile apps to digital dashboards — that deliver real-time insights, personalised advice, and easy transacting.

Adviser enablement

Just as important as client platforms are tools that empower advisers. Digital dashboards, AI-driven risk alerts, and customer relationship management (CRM) systems that integrate behavioural and transactional data, are now core investments. Deloitte’s 2024 Wealth Management Outlook found that firms that deploy advanced analytics see adviser productivity increase by up to 20 percent.

Selective vendor partnerships

A clear theme is firms’ growing reliance on best-of-breed external vendors for non-differentiating capabilities, such as cybersecurity or regulatory reporting, while they focus in-house resources on what sets them apart: adviser-client relationships, bespoke portfolio strategies, and brand trust.

"When vendors retire or stop supporting systems, we face a fundamental decision: do we build the capability ourselves, or do we partner with a new provider? Either way, the goal is to safeguard resilience while moving forward."

Risk and compliance resilience

Even as firms pursue innovation, compliance remains a priority. Automated reporting, integrated risk management systems, and real-time monitoring are now embedded into most firms’ technology spend. The FCA’s emphasis on operational resilience has reinforced this focus.

Technology spend today is no longer about ‘keeping the lights on’. It is about building a competitive edge through smarter, client-centric systems that empower advisers and enhance trust.

Tomorrow — a new playbook for technology spend

Looking ahead, the next phase of technology spend in wealth management will be characterised not by large-scale re-platforming but by targeted, modular, and strategic investments.

The ‘why’ of spend

Executives emphasised the importance of starting with business objectives. Technology for its own sake is no longer acceptable. Each investment must solve a defined problem: improving client retention, reducing proposal preparation times, enhancing compliance efficiency, or enabling adviser productivity.

Modular architecture

The industry is moving away from monolithic, end-to-end systems. Instead, wealth managers are adopting modular, API-driven architectures that allow them to plug in best-of-breed solutions. This approach reduces dependency on single vendors and increases agility.

"In a SaaS-driven world, customisation is a luxury we can no longer afford. Agility comes from configuration, not endless bespoke builds.”

AI adoption options

AI presents a spectrum of strategies. Some firms are experimenting boldly with generative AI to support advisers with proposal drafting, content summarisation, and regulatory search. Indeed, 91 percent of investment managers are already using AI or plan to.

Others prefer a cautious “wait and see” approach, citing regulatory uncertainty and reputational risk. EY’s 2024 Global Wealth Research found that while 54 percent of affluent investors are comfortable with AI-led analytics, only 19 percent would trust AI alone for holistic advice.

The talent challenge

Technology adoption is limited by human capability. The shortage of AI and data science talent is acute, and firms must invest in training as much as platforms. The cultural challenge is equally significant: advisers must be comfortable using digital tools in ways that enhance rather than replace human relationships.

Data discipline

Clean, centralised, and integrated data is the foundation for all future innovation. Without it, AI and advanced analytics cannot function effectively. Executives consistently cited data quality as the most pressing enabler — and bottleneck — of digital transformation.

Client onboarding and CRM

Frictionless onboarding remains a priority. Investments in biometric ID verification, digital signatures, and integrated CRM platforms are expected to accelerate. The goal: onboarding that is fast, compliant, and client-friendly.

Cybersecurity as a non-negotiable

With cyberattacks on financial services rising year-on-year, cybersecurity spend is no longer discretionary. According to IBM’s most recent Cost of a Data Breach Report, the average cost of a financial services breach was US$5.9 million — among the highest of any industry.

Cloud-first future

Cloud adoption will continue to expand, driven by scalability and cost efficiency. Gartner predicts that by 2027, over 70 percent of financial services workloads will be cloud-based.

External competition

Finally, executives acknowledged the looming threat of Big Tech. Firms such as Google and Apple set the benchmark for digital experiences — simple, personalised, and intuitive. Wealth managers must learn from these players and continually raise their own digital bar.

The competitive advantage of tomorrow will not come from the size of the technology budget, but from the clarity of its purpose and the discipline of its execution.

"Our high-net-worth clients expect the same seamless, intuitive digital experience they get from Big Tech. We need to harness technology — and increasingly AI — to not just meet those expectations, but to exceed them."

Interested in reading From survival to reinvention: The new playbook for technology spend in wealth management? You can read the white paper in full online here.

About the WealthTech Insight Series (WTIS)

This research-led white paper is part of The Wealth Mosaic’s WealthTech Insight Series (WTIS), an ongoing research series 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
• From survival to reinvention: the new playbook for technology spend in wealth management – 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.

Discover our latest reports!

• UK Toolkit 2025 – read here
• European WealthTech Landscape Report 2025 – read here
• AI Toolkit 2025 – read here
• Client Experience Toolkit 2024 – read here

Join our community and follow us on LinkedIn here.