✅ The Future Of Wealth Management Is Hybrid — Both Digital And In-person

For our first digest, we explore what the future entails for the wealth management industry. In recent years, the single biggest disruption to the market is the acceleration of digital transformation. Moreover, the fundamental change to how advisors interact and serve their clients has changed radically. With this disruption, new opportunities present themselves because of how clients are now accustomed to digital-first. Interestingly, all of these disruptions in digital adoption have been made possible because of the Covid-19 pandemic. These innovations come from video conferencing, delivery, and even endless hours of streaming TV. One important consideration for personal finances, however, is that these digital transformations need to cultivate trust. Because wealth management is so sensitive, one must first ensure that confidentiality and security are paramount. Moreover, the advisor-client relationship, as it evolves, needs to adopt digital empathy driven by data. These new digital tools will automate the heavy lifting, but the wealth management industry still needs to have a holistic view of their clients. The past 12 months have shown that advisors, similar to the tools available to them, need to evolve and adapt.

—

✅ InvestCloud’s Julien Le Noble On Arming Asia’s Wealth Industry With The Optimal Digital Tools

For our next digest, we look at how a global Fintech firm is arming Asia’s wealth management industry. In February, InvestCloud announced that it had completed a recapitalization that values the business at over $1 billion. Julien De Nobile is a senior director for InvestCloud, focusing on the firm’s Asia Pacific operations. On April 22, he joined a Hubbis webinar on digital solutions driving portfolio curation. When interviewed, he mentioned that the company’s customers typically work with them for three main reasons. These are to seek digital solutions for their business, to retain their clients, and to increase productivity and operational efficiency. About the future of the industry, the company sees the operational complexities that wealth managers will undoubtedly face. As a remedy, they believe the merging with Finantix and Tegra118 will address these trends and deliver significant value. Julien also mentions that the company approaches hyper-personalisation by focusing on two elements. These elements are the advisory content and the digitally-enhanced process of supporting that advice. In the firm’s view, there remain huge opportunities for banks to stay a trusted partner with clients in the digital era.

—

✅ M&G Wealth To Launch Hybrid Robo-adviser

For our final digest, M&G Wealth has appointed Ignition Advice to develop a low-cost hybrid robo-advice offering. The service is expected to roll out in the final quarter of 2021. In the meantime, the firm said advice will still be provided by a human adviser but backed by digital technology. Even though the service will be offered more widely, it will initially be targeted at the company’s existing customers. Interestingly, the company said the new robo-advisor would reduce the time and cost to deliver advice. Moreover, it will allow improved outcomes for those seeking to invest or retire with smaller sums of money. Richard Caldicott, deputy chief executive officer at M&G Wealth Advice, said the company wants as many people as possible to access advice in an efficient, understandable, convenient, affordable, and sustainable way. In addition to that, he says this is to bridge the gap for investors who perceive financial advice to be inaccessible and too costly. The company believes that, overall, digitally-led solutions make advice more accessible, easier to navigate, and more cost effective. To this end, M&G seems to be making this move so they can evolve their offering to clients and further scale their proposition in the market.