Findings from WealthTech Matters - The Client, March 2021

The Context:

Working with The Wealth Mosaic, Owen James launched this series of three WealthTech Matters a year ago. Indeed, it was the last event we ran in-person before we learned about the joys of lockdown. We knew there were tricky times ahead but I don’t think anyone had any idea just how awful the pandemic would be. However, on a positive note (and there always has to be one in there if you dig deep), necessity is the mother of all invention and, no one can deny, we have all become super inventive.

The three WealthTech Matters each has a different focus: the client, the adviser and the overarching business model.

The invited delegates are typically the Chief Operating Officers or Chief Technology Officers of the wealth management, private banking and very top end advisory distributor world. On this occasion there were some 50 participants.

The event is sponsored by firms who are keen to engage with this group on a strategic basis. They are able to bring their specialist expertise to the table (or screen) and if there is an interest in pursuing a further conversation off line then Owen James will seek to facilitate that.

The following are the headline findings captured from the outputs from the interactive roundtables held at the most recent iteration focusing on the Client.

The Goal:

The goal of these events is to provide the delegates with an opportunity to share and contrast experiences with their peer group. On this occasion, it is an opportunity to look at the huge technological leaps forward and how they are impacting their clients’ attitudes; the way in which they are able to attract new clients; what their clients want and how do they want it?

The Format:

The half day is a blend of keynotes from external speakers, whose remit is to encourage new thinking and insights, interactive roundtables examining the key issues and challenges the delegation faces in its client focused activity, TechTalks – short sharp and entertaining updates on solutions being offered to solve some of the issues raised, and finally networking. The virtual world does not offer that useful “bumping into someone over coffee” moment…  but we are able to arrange one to one meetings where a mutual benefit may be had.

The Sponsors

We would like to thank all our sponsors whose financial contribution enabled WealthTech Matters to take place.

Their motivation is threefold: 

• To be, and to be seen as being supportive of the industry;
• To understand the stresses and strains being placed on the industry and, where possible, respond to them; and
• To talk openly with these business leaders with a view to ensuring that their businesses are strategically aligned

The Facilitators:

We would also like to thank our facilitators.

The roundtables are key to the success of these events and integral to that role are our facilitators. We are very grateful for the help of Giles Patterson from Aon Client Insights; David Edwards from Esperto, Paul Miles, Silverback Consulting, Kevin Mountford, Raisin and Stephen Wall from The Wealth Mosaic.  

Their role was to ensure that the roundtables maintained their focus and to encourage participation from all on screen! In the virtual world, their biggest challenge was to ensure that everyone kept their videos on!!!  We think they did pretty well!

The roundtable write ups:

The following are the headline outputs from the roundtables which took place on the day. Hopefully a useful aide memoir to those of you who were there … and for those of you who weren’t hopefully useful. The roundtables operate under Chatham House rules so apart from the expert and facilitator no names or companies are mentioned.