Originally published in Financial Planning | by Suleman Din | March 2, 2020

Client demands are changing the way the asset and wealth management industry operates

Our CEO Anton Honikman recently sat down with Financial Planning’s Suleman Din to talk about the trend of convergence in banking and wealth management, where advisors are increasingly expected to offer insights into cash management, banking and lending products.

“The future of advice is more than offering investment management,” says Anton in the piece. “It’s about focusing on debt and savings together as elements of one’s financial life.”

Although some of the larger RIA and digital-first firms are catching on, small firms have been slow to adapt. However, the reality is that to compete in the digital age of wealth management, firms must acclimate to the changing needs of the consumer.

Jay Shah, CEO of Personal Capital and one of our valued clients, distills this trend using his own firm as an example.

“Our customers are actually saying: ‘Do more for me.’ With all this ineffectively deployed cash out there, it allowed us to build these solutions really at the request of our clients.”

As the zero-commission fee structure grows in popularity, this is becoming a natural next step for firms that already have the potential to embrace the offerings. Data plays a central role in this trend, as it’s allowing firms to understand their clients better, underscoring the opportunity to nudge clients in the right direction financially in a way they haven’t been able to previously.

You can read the full article here, or check out the cover story in Financial Planning’s March print issue.