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As a Wealth Management firm, you are investing in technology – but is it paying dividends, or just creating noise? Retail banking reached an inflection point with tech transformation over a decade ago – now Wealth stands at a similar crossroads. With the current market volatility dominating conversations between advisors and clients, it may be easy to overlook the tech imperative. But this is, in fact, when it’s even more critical to stay the course. I believe the right technology, supporting the right advisor talent, will define the winners in Wealth Management over the next decade.
Over the last 5-7 years, Wealth Management has seen accelerated change – from the generational wealth transfer and PE-funded consolidation, to the democratized access to alternatives, AI adoption, and end-to-end digitization. Tech no longer just supports strategy, it is strategy. Whether it’s driving growth, improving user experiences, enhancing cybersecurity, operationalizing AI, or enabling compliance, technology now defines the brand and trust – two non-negotiables in this industry, especially during uncertain times.
With so much at stake, implementing the right technology with appropriate prioritization across the business can be overwhelming. How do you build scalable, impactful, forward-looking - not just tactical - tech that delivers measurable outcomes today and also sets the foundation for tomorrow?
Let’s start by breaking through three persistent myths that often seem to hold Wealth firms back.
Myth 1: Digital is Only for Younger/ Tech Savvy Clients (and Advisors)
If I am a $100MM client, 70+ years old, and accustomed to an army of people handling things for me, surely I wouldn’t want to review my investments portfolio and returns on my own time, look at different scenarios in my financial and estate plan, or move money seamlessly for capital calls – right? Wrong.
Today, tech is for ALL clients and advisors. I have heard it firsthand from clients across the wealth, age, and complexity spectrum. Just like in their personal lives – ordering with two clicks on Amazon, posting pictures on Instagram, or booking flights – most clients expect and demand the same conveniences in managing their wealth. They want to self-serve on their own time and terms and access their advisor when they need to. It's no longer a choice between digital or human; it's both.
The same holds true for advisors. They don’t want to spend their time unlocking a client’s online access, initiating money movements, or uploading tax documents. They’re looking for automation to handle these routine tasks—so they can focus on what truly matters. Instead of crunching numbers to explain the impact of market fluctuations, advisors could focus on guiding clients through behavioral coaching, portfolio rebalancing for better alignment with goals, and tax-loss harvesting opportunities.
Myth 2: All We Need are a Few Tech Band-Aids
Piecemeal implementations are the death of user experience, and eventually, credibility with users. How often have we heard - “Everything else is working ok – we just need to leverage technology to dial up new client acquisition”, or “Just give me e-signature for account opening; the rest of the process can stay as-is (with a combination of manual and dated multi-system processes)”. These half-measures often disappoint users, and can undercut the effectiveness of the broader tech strategy.
This is not to say that an end-to-end overhaul is always required. Smaller (say $4-10 billion) RIAs could manage technology by filling specific gaps such as CRMs, billing, reporting, and portfolio management – this strategy, so effective for smaller firms, is though exactly what is holding back larger firms.
Most larger organizations have a spaghetti bowl of legacy tech and roadmaps that could require decades of work. What they need is the right expertise to connect the dots from business goals to user feedback and tech priorities, ensuring that short-term enhancements are consistent with a longer-term roadmap.
Myth 3: Build vs. Buy? We need Custom Builds for our Unique Value Proposition
With the SaaS sprawl of the last decade and more recently, LLM models, owning and building all your tech in-house is a thing of the past. Specialist tech providers are building deep, nuanced, and best-in-class tools. Most businesses lack the scale to replicate these.
From lead generation to account opening and note taking, practitioners can choose third-party tools that best fit their needs – user flows, architecture, and data governance - and choose custom builds sparingly for use cases that truly create market differentiation. Leveraging third party tools does, however, mean that the organization needs to build the capabilities to stitch these disparate tools together into cohesive solutions and also to manage vendor relationships in a disciplined manner – legal T&Cs, implementations, and ongoing service levels.
Is your Wealth organization still buying into one of these myths? If not – congratulations. Once a firm moves past these common blockers, the next questions emerge: What should we build, when, and how?
This article kicks off a three-part series exploring exactly that. In the next piece, I will outline a blueprint for a tech-forward roadmap tailored to Wealth firms – what to prioritize, where to start, and how to surround the implementation with the right enablers. After that, we will dive into the transformative role of AI - beyond the hype, into what’s actually working.
The Wealth Management firms that thrive in this next era won’t just adopt new technology – they will reimagine how tech and talent come together to create lasting value.
Related: From Co-Pilot to Catalyst: How AI Is Reshaping Wealth Management — And Where To Place Your Bets