What EY can do for you

Wealth and asset management firms must rethink their business and infrastructure strategies, including the need to support a truly global operating model.

Firms are experiencing increased competition from new entrants and non-traditional providers, along with a shift from active to passive products. At the same time, they are grappling with the costs of meeting regulatory burdens, embracing new technologies and managing legacy operating models. To remain competitive, firms must look to reduce costs, improve efficiency and increase operating margins across the value chain.

We leverage a range of measures to help you achieve operational efficiency — including lean process design, robotics process automation, outsourcing, offshoring, data and analytics, and organizational design — and embrace new technologies, such as blockchain. Our services include:

  • Designing global operating model strategies aligned to your business strategy
  • Reducing process inefficiency by identifying what to cease, improve, shift and automate, with a focus on value to your end client
  • Rationalizing products through extensive analysis of product and portfolio manager performance
  • Improving high-volume, data-intensive processes through rules-based automation and machine learning to enable intelligent automation
  • Offshoring lower-value activities to reduce FTE costs for processes or functions
  • Outsourcing activities not part of your core value proposition to asset servicers
  • Implementing a holistic approach to data to reduce costs associated with data governance, ownership and quality
  • Rationalizing technology by working to eliminate legacy in-house applications and consolidate vendor applications across the architecture

Why choose us as your operational efficiency partner?

  • Experience working on market-leading business transformation programs
  • Dedicated wealth and asset management industry professionals across functions including: regulatory compliance, operational risk, data management, technology infrastructure, finance, organizational change management and program management
  • Strategic relationships with a number of leading technology vendors across the wealth and asset management value chain
  • Ability to apply a Lean-based approach and Agile methodologies, which reduce time-to-market delivery and risk
Case Study
The better the question. The better the answer. The better the world works.
Case Study

Positioning a financial planning and pension provider for growth

We boosted an Australian company’s ability to grow by supporting its transition from a paper-based system to a digital one.

Case Study
The better the question. The better the answer. The better the world works.
Case Study

Meeting changing customer needs? Growing the bottom line?

Moving from paper-based records to a digital platform

A leading Australian financial planning and pension administrator wanted to introduce new digital technology and core software systems to reduce costs, provide better customer service and equip it to take advantage of new market opportunities.

The company provides financial and retirement advice services, as well as managing administrative functions such as record-keeping, reporting and customer interaction for one of Australia’s largest superannuation (company pension) funds.

“The company was established pre-internet, and many of its systems and processes were manual and paper-based,” explains Jeff Hall, Director, EY Wealth & Asset Management Consulting Practice.

“Part of our brief was to help digitize, standardize and simplify the business to be more efficient in its operations. The project entailed a massive transformation that required integration across the whole business.” 

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Case Study
The better the question. The better the answer. The better the world works.
Case Study

Meeting fast-evolving customer needs

Introducing real-time access to fund performance via mobile devices

Our client was facing a number of challenges. A deficiency in IT investment and strategy over the years had left a legacy of outdated and non-integrated systems, making it difficult to offer customers a consistent and coherent experience. Having to update these different IT systems to reflect frequent regulatory changes was leading to escalating costs and complexity.

The business also wanted to be better positioned to keep pace with evolving customer expectations, such as the demand for “anytime, anywhere” access to fund performance and other information via mobile devices. To meet these expectations and develop innovative new offerings, our client needed easy access to data including customers’ records, files and previous interactions.

We began by helping the business to finalize its choice of software vendors. We then provided support with implementing the technology and getting the new, streamlined operating model up and running.

The project was a success, with our client able to reduce administrative costs and exploit enhanced digital capabilities. The integrated digital system now provides instant access to documents and files, allowing many more activities to be dealt with online.

In turn, this means investors benefit from lower fees, increased transparency and more control over their retirement income. They are able to track investment performance and explore ways to grow their pension pot to meet specific goals.

“The business is now well placed to grow in a competitive marketplace, where customer service is a key differentiator,” says Hall.

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Case Study
The better the question. The better the answer. The better the world works.
Case Study

Providing the client with the right tools

Our knowledge of the superannuation industry and working style delivered results

Our team has deep experience and understanding of the wealth and asset management industry, and specifically, the superannuation industry. Our client also valued our collaborative style, which fit well with its own culture, allowing us to work closely and flexibly together.

“We put the right team, framework and tools in place, making it easier for our clients to do whatever they need to do. We give them a strong basis to innovate from,” says Hall.

How EY can help

Operational efficiency

We help you implement strategies to improve efficiency across your firm’s value chain, increasing margins while reducing long-term costs and risk.

Read more
Technology-enabled transformation

We help you effectively harness the power of technology to simplify, rationalize and centralize your firm’s operations, clearing the way to improve efficiency and extend product capabilities to attract new investments.

Read more
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Contact us

Like what you’ve seen? Get in touch to learn more.

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