The reworking of the strategy follows a strategic review which took in feedback from ‘an extensive programme of meetings’ between CEO Liz Field and the WMA’s members to discuss ‘challenges and opportunities.’
The five focus areas are advocacy, influence, research and information, thought leadership and facilitation.
Advocacy will involve targeting with governments, regulators, the media and the wider financial services community to promote wealth management and challenging some perceptions about the sector. Influence is an extension of this.
The research and information element will be centred on aggregating trends and data about the industry and providing guidance to its members and ‘early warning’ systems on regulatory, market and business issues.
Thought leadership refers to the WMA’s aspiration to lead debate on how the industry should respond to changes, regulations and business issues, while facilitation refers to the identification and sharing of good practice.
“The WMA has a solid basis upon which to continue to grow and fulfil its purpose as the trade association for wealth management,” Field said.
“Working collaboratively with members and key stakeholders is key and the WMA has specialist wealth management employees as well as an active committee structure, which leverages the knowhow and expertise of the best in the membership,” she added.
“It is clear, however, that the members want more from us and I am grateful to the support and enthusiasm that is shown to the WMA. The outcome of the review has identified 5 key areas as focus points for the future which will help us to deliver that.”
