The Global Wealth Landscape

By M. Isi Eromosele

The global wealth management marketplace is evolving with the expansion of an affluent client pool and increased competition created through mergers, acquisitions and the introduction of non-traditional players.

Wealth managers should be setting business goals that require innovative technology solutions to help increase sales, reduce costs, retain existing clients and attract new ones. They must increasingly coordinate processes around their customers.

It is advisable that they realize the need to carefully evaluate and quickly deploy the right technology solutions to garner competitive advantage in the market. The considerations to create or strengthen a customer-centric model are complex, but most firms must recognize that long-term success is determined by an organization’s ability to deliver customer-centric products and services.

Wealthy individuals have multiple and complex financial needs. Banks gearing to meet their needs must build long-term relationships in which advice, as opposed to products and transactions, is the focus.

These banks must establish multiple touch points with clients, enabling them to benefit from enduring client loyalty and their predisposition towards referrals to prospective clients. The primary differentiators are going to be advisory capabilities, product breadth, and facilitation of customer ease and convenience.

Focus On Advisory Services

Private banking and wealth management customers are turning cautious with their investments as they seek better service providers. The quality of service, reporting and investment advice remain some of the important selection criteria for customers.

‘Know-all’ advisors, offering advice across different product types, suggesting unique product bundling, predicting trends in the local and as well as global markets and suggesting investment protection mechanism, are key to the success  of wealth management services today.

With the frequent highs and lows in the markets, there is an apparent disconnect between

many advisors and customers. Advisors are turning towards fact-based analysis and detailed case studies to bridge the gap.

However, it would be pertinent to note that there is also a growing trend towards self-service enablement, where knowledgeable customers are not fully dependent on the advisory services provided by the bank. To provide such high levels of service, banks should implement systems that offer a holistic view of customer relationship across assets and liabilities, to tailor appropriate investment solutions.

Increasing Market Share

Wealth management clients are increasingly demanding comprehensive and tailored services, with bespoke investment options. They are also keen to maintain relationships with multiple banks, to compare offerings and opt for the best. Banks should spare no efforts to strategically transform their product offerings and services, while revamping their technology infrastructure to differentiate themselves from competition.

The wealth management space is now being catered to by different types of firms including brokers, private banks, retail banks and insurance houses and all of them are vying for the same clients, the booming mass affluent segment and the high net worth segment.

Wealth management firms must make strategic investments to differentiate themselves in the eyes of existing and would-be high net worth and ultra-high net worth clients. It is imperative for insurance firms, brokerage service firms and retail banks to invest heavily in the advisor centric model as they each vie to be the chosen wealth manager for the retirement segment as well as for the younger generations.

This has resulted in direct competition in a space dominated, till recently by private banks and trusts. As a result, each of these players is looking at how best to differentiate its offerings.

Consequently, as wealth management firms increasingly compete for the same high net worth clients and clients themselves become more demanding, the pressure is on firms to understand the essence of client needs in existing and growth markets, even if they have already developed an accurate understanding of high net worth individuals in their established markets.

Without this insight, firms will find it difficult to develop an attractive proposition. As a result, banks are moving away from the conventional pure product focus and focusing on total solutions that are completely oriented to client needs.

M. Isi Eromosele is the President | Chief Executive Officer | Executive Creative Director of Oseme Group - Oseme Creative | Oseme Consulting | Oseme Finance

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