Wealthtechs are poised to have a crucial role in managing the wealth of the world:
Wealthtech has been transforming since 2014 and today it has significant presence in the wealth management domain. It enables advisors to offer the best solutions to customers, and customers are benefited with best of the products identified with the help of technology.
Wealthtech is optimally using technologies like artificial intelligence, Big Data and robo advisory to create tools for wealth management firms to be able to offer the best-in-class services to their clients. There is a wide range of technologies that wealthtech firms have access to and developed, the important ones being:
TOP TECHNOLOGIES
Robo advisors, which offer financial advice or investment management online with little to no human interaction. Robo advisors use ML algorithms to determine the ideal investment portfolios for customers, based on their risk preferences. Robo advisors are estimated to be managing around $4.6 billion globally.
Micro-investing, which allows consumers to save, deposit, and invest smaller amounts of money using automated processes. It is an interesting interactive experience for the customers than making use of a robo advisor.
Digital brokers, which are online platforms and software tools that offer access to stock market information and facilitate investment. These platforms, depending on the customer profile, provide analyses and investment instruments for both experienced investors and beginners. Part of the digital brokers is ‘social investing’, which is meant for less-experienced clients as they are able to shadow or automatically copy the trades that more experienced traders do.
Investment Tools & Portfolio Management, which is essentially a B2B proposition. Under this, there are investment tools like comparison tools, research analyzes and access to networks of advice.
Financial Services Software, which is a service offered by specialized companies that provide software to support the adoption of digital wealth management and investing strategies.
Robo Retirement, which is a specialized domain where companies manage a customer’s retirement savings. This is totally different from manual financial planning as creation of retirement portfolios, managing assets, providing strategies, and recommending plans are done by computer systems.
Many wealth management professionals believe wealthtech is in the process of replacing financial advisors in their current format.
PREDICTIVE ANALYTICS, CLOUD
In the immediate future, experts believe 2 technology realms will be increasingly used by wealthtech firms – predictive analytics and cloud computing. While the latter helps the wealthtech firms to gain insights into client needs and behaviours and offer tailormade products and services to the wealthy investors, cloud computing will be of immense assistance to wealthtech firms as it provides for sustainable growth. In addition, blockchain is a sure-shot technology and it has already created new asset classes. And so is quantum computing, which will help wealth managers deal with information overload.
It is now estimated that the market for wealthtech solutions, which stood at $4.8 billion in 2021, will grow at a CAGR of 14.8% from 2022 to 2031 to reach $18.6 billion.
The requirement of specialist services, including operational and investment management in the wealth management segment, has led to the evolution of the concept of Wealth Management-as-a-Service (sometimes even called wealth-as-a-service). The increasing demand for such a service has spurred the need for technology platforms that can be easily integrated into the legacy systems and operational processes. To broaden and diversify investment sources, wealth managers are looking for partnerships with product providers and for creating specialized and high-return products. Such a service. supported by technology and digitized processes is bound to benefit small family offices and independent asset managers. The concept is bound to be a welcome one for traditional service providers and also wealth managers who are into digital transformation of their services.
Besides, the model could allow wealth managers to expand their reach to hitherto-inaccessible markets, like for instance, they can offer services modularly to clients, without spending huge funds and valuable time building the capabilities in-house.
KEY WEALTH MANAGEMENT TOOLS
What are the latest tools and solutions under wealthtech?
The major ones are:
Automated Solutions, using which wealth management firms can understand the needs of the next generation of clients, including those for portfolio development, tech-enabled financial solutions, and automatic rebalancing. Technologies like AI, ML and blockchain development services are part of these solutions.
Portfolio Management has become high tech-enabled and wealthtech solutions can easily offer a range of fixed-income assets as a consistent source of income, wealth preservation and protection against inflation and market volatility.
Investment Management using tech tools can provide individuals and businesses with expert guidance on investment strategies and asset allocation.
Financial Planning can be made easier using wealthtech tools and resources and help individuals achieve their financial goals.
Tax Optimization tools are available today, which help individuals minimize their tax liability and maximise returns.
Retirement Planning is made simpler with wealthtech tools and help individuals prepare for their retirement years.
Reporting and Analytics is another tech-enabled function that provides individuals and businesses real-time insights into their finances.
Experts predict that the digital transformation that wealth management firms are undergoing today can create open wealth ecosystems and open wealth APIs like how open banking is a reality today. The transformation is actually throwing up new products and services, better customer experience and operational efficiency and the ultimate evolution of a data-driven wealth management. Firms that will be winners will be wealth advisors who use tech platforms to offer their products and services. There are also private banks, which have streamlined their offerings to have mass-personalized services and product offers.
Wealthtech firms have received adequate support from regulatory agencies. For example, the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), is investing as much as £500,000 per year into wealthtech development, expansion and education. It wants wealthtechs to facilitate wealth management companies offer financial advice and service to people who might not otherwise receive it.
Blockchain technology has a big influence today on wealth management. There is research that is under way by large investment companies on how to optimally use the distributed ledger technology. Besides this, blockchain technology is also creating multiple new classes of assets.
Wealthtech tools give wealth managers a leg up on the competition when they select the best applications for their practice. New software solutions and online services brought about by wealthtech innovations can reduce costs and free up time for advisors to focus on diligent and customized planning.
HELP IN THE TRANSITIONING
Wealthtech is affording help to wealth managers in the process of transitioning portfolios from one generation to the next. A recent report has estimated that some $84 trillion of wealth will change hands over the coming decades. This money will not simply move from one investment portfolio to another. There will be multiple portfolios and avenues. That transition can be efficiently and seamlessly handled only by technology platforms.
A wealth advisor’s profile is fast changing. There is a wealthtech solution in every aspect of wealth management. From identifying clients to onboarding and later creating investment plans and portfolios, there is that technology tool that improves performance.
Truly, wealth management is transitioning and for a successful firm identifying and deploying the right and relevant wealthtech solution is going to be the critical task in the coming years.
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