It's been way to long since my last post.... I want to catch up with a little bit about trends around Wealth Management Technology and some good articles I've seen.
On Wealth Management
Let me catch up on what's going on at Headstrong and more importantly what we've been seeing in the market. Vinod Gopinathan and I have been focusing our efforts on wealth management technology. We've been specifically focused on adviser desktops, CRM, reporting applications, and SMA / UMA platforms.
Let me catch up on what's going on at Headstrong and more importantly what we've been seeing in the market. Vinod Gopinathan and I have been focusing our efforts on wealth management technology. We've been specifically focused on adviser desktops, CRM, reporting applications, and SMA / UMA platforms.
Trends in the market - Growth in Independent Financial Advisors - It's clear the IFA market is on the rise. Financial Advisers are seeing value (and major cost savings) by becoming independent. Why operate under a big name brand when your relationship with your client is the only thing that really matters? The beneficiaries of this FA movement seem to be Fidelity, Wells Fargo, LPL Financial, and Charles Schwab. Some news:
- Top 10 findings of Morgan Stanley report include: Schwab as the best RIA custodian, LPL for highest advisor satisfaction
- INDEPENDENTS MAKE HEADWAY DESPITE DOWNTURN
- The Leading Indicator: Breakaway lawyers turn the tables and invite RIA providers to their own conference
- Demand for system scalability and a backlog in demand. Because of the lack of IT investment in 2009, firms seem to be investing heavily to catch up in their technology projects. Interest seems to be around application scalability or new revenue generating applications. There also seems to be a growing interest around platform based (Cloud / PaaS / SaaS) offerings from enterprise financial services firms who previously would not have considered such an option. Given the security and platform provider operational risks associated with Cloud/PaaS/SaaS, large financial services still seem to be in the evaluation phase of a long-term strategy. See: Waiting for the Cloudburst
- Managed Accounts: SMA & UMA - Separately managed accounts are nothing new. But the efforts of the MMI & DTCC are poised to transform the industry. The MMI has released XML communication standards to improve the inefficiencies in the industry communication. The DTCC is developing MAS - Managed Accounts Services to act has a central communication's hub for the industries messages. More on the DTCC platform can be found at: DTCC MAS PDF.
Other Articles to Read
- The Economist - Special Edition Article on Data
- Mashable - Opensource Social Networking
- FinanceTech - Investment Advisor M&A on the Rise
- Jamie Dimon Speaks at Syracuse Graduation -
- NYTimes - http://tinyurl.com/35bcbp5
- NYMag - http://tinyurl.com/39l9evh
My next posts will cover cloud computing, mobile, and social networking in financial services.
