On the product side, WPBs will need to strengthen their investment offering, provide the necessary advice and suitability checks across a larger investor group and develop the associated digital delivery capabilities. On the service side, firms will increasingly seek to put holistic wealth planning, centered on clients’ lives, at the core of their activities. Integrating education into client journeys in a coherent way will be vital.
3. The integration of people and digital technology
The majority of wealthy clients plan to access more advice through digital tools in the future.2 This provides an opportunity for firms to improve efficiency and satisfaction at the same time by scaling up automated, client-led advice. Even so, human advisors will remain vital to almost all wealth models.
The growing ubiquity of hybrid models means that getting them right will be critical to future success. The key challenge will be to seamlessly blend human contact with automated interactions. Providing smooth, high-value omnichannel advice in real time – especially when working cross-border or with mobile clients – will be difficult.
The ultimate solution is to provide a synergetic blend of people and technology. The future of advice will see WPBs develop platforms that incorporate sophisticated digital assistants alongside tech-enabled remote advisors. The effect will be to transform advisor performance and client satisfaction while lowering cost to serve.
4. The use of data and technology in advice generation
The WPB industry has made significant strides in digitizing the delivery of advice, but there is huge untapped potential to bring data and technology to bear on the generation of advice itself. Digital investment tools are viewed positively by the wealthy, especially in Asia-Pacific and among millennial clients (see Figure 3).