Wealth management is one of the least tech-literate sectors of the financial services industry, and is falling well behind non-financial services industries, according to the PwC report.
Only one quarter of wealth managers globally offer digital channels beyond email and the digital strategies currently offered in the wealth management sector are sharply at odds with what HNWIs expect, the report said.
The report pulls from interviews with relationship managers, CEO’s and fintech representatives as well as a survey of 1,000 high net worth individuals in Europe, North America and Asia.
On a global scale, 55% of HNWIs surveyed believe it is important for their financial advisor or wealth manager to have a strong digital offering.
PwC said firms that embrace digital opportunities now are in a position to deliver “propositions of real and sustainable future value” which combine technological and human capital.
Andrew Hogan, UK wealth management leader at PwC said: “Wealth relationship managers enjoy high levels of trust among their client base. They are already recipients of a depth and breadth of data and insight spanning both financial and non-financial aspects. Any future wealth management model needs, without question, to retain this human aspect.”
“However, in an increasingly complex world where the investment office may, for example, have to evaluate more than 200 different investment products for a client, and where clients are also aware of what automated technology can do in the investment advisory space, technology will be vital to keep the job both do-able and scalable for a growing audience,” Hogan added.
