The year 2020 wreaked havoc in the lives of everybody across the world. As the pandemic struck the globe, people were forced to stay indoors and all major business processes came to a sudden halt.

This affected almost everyone from every walk of life – businessmen, professionals, artists, and laborers. As businesses started shutting their doors and letting their employees go to cut their costs, several employees found themselves jobless.

In such a dire situation, the problem of wealth management was imminent across every stratum of the society. Everyone has been facing the problem of managing their wealth in the best way possible. Although the situation is slightly better in 2021, the financial problem still persists.

Apart from the COVID situation, there are several other aspects that have been affecting the wealth management industry across the globe. For the better or worse, the importance of wealth management has significantly increased over time.

Here are some of the most important wealth management industry trends that you should focus on in 2021:

Inherent Advantage To The Digitally Sound Organizations

As mentioned earlier, the pandemic in 2020 forced people to stay at home and refrain from physically going to work. This led to companies lacking the digital infrastructure suffering the most.

On the other hand, organizations that were digitally sound were in a far better place. 2020 increased the popularity of working from home exponentially. Organizations started adapting to virtual workplaces, allowing seamless collaboration between the employees without the need for going to work physically.

The rise of platforms like Zoom, Slack, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams made digitally backward organizations realize the importance of process automation and digitization of workplaces, making them invest more in online collaborative platforms.

Hyper-personalization Of Wealth Management Services

As of now, the need for personalization is at its peak. Organizations need to tailor their services now more than they have ever had to, whether it is providing support to their employees or serve their clients.

This personalization has seeped into wealth management services as well. As the use of automated technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning tools has increased, wealth management agencies have started providing hyper-personalized services to their clients.

These services involve analyzing all the problems a client is facing, the wealth they own, and providing wealth management solutions that are unique for the concerned client.

Such hyper-personalization of services will also lead to a further rise in the use of CRM platform for centralized and automated management of customer/client database.

Rise Of A New Generation Of Investors

This is the age of millennials and the Gen-Z generation. Until now, most wealth management services were provided to people who were either adverse or indifferent to the age of digitization.

However, the scenario is changing rapidly. As the millennials are growling older, they are either inheriting wealth from their parents/grandparents or are setting up startup ventures for entering the market young. This has given rise to a completely new generation of investors.

These investors are tech-savvy and digitization-friendly global citizens who have a fresh approach towards managing their wealth (earned or inherited). Keeping this in mind, wealth management services need to be upgraded to suit the needs of these new and young investors, helping them make the most of the financial treasure they have.

Digitized Reports Are The New Normal

The COVID effect coupled with the rise in digitization has resulted in the need for digitized reports. According to research by Capgemini, 77% of high net-worth clients prefer to access their portfolio data online.

This increases the need for creating and circulating reports that are digitized, interactive, and more visual than their traditional counterparts. The use of charts, graphs, and animations will be on the rise as it has become the new normal.

Real-time Use Of Alternative Data

In simple words, alternative data can be referred to as the information about a company published publicly by sources outside of the company for investment purposes.

As the markets have started becoming global and the use of automated tools has facilitated real-time tracking of data, modern wealth management solutions involve a real-time use of alternative data to help individuals and businesses make the right investment decisions.

Technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning tools have made it possible for everyone to obtain key insights into the market they operate in and the industry in which they want to invest.

Also, this will increase the need for wealth management firms to hire professionals that help their clients in keeping a track of alternative data in real-time for the best investment solutions.

More Than Just Wealth Management Services

Just like an increase in the need for personalization, high net worth clients today demand a little more than wealth management services, mostly due to the exorbitant rates charged by a select few agencies.

This has resulted in wealth management firms providing tax and lifestyle planning services to their clients in addition to their core services. This satisfies the clients more as they can now justify the price they are paying for getting their wealth managed.

Also, looking at the damage caused by the COVID situation on the lifestyle of almost every individual across the world, providing lifestyle management services along with the traditional wealth management services will only improve the brand value of the service providers.

Wealth Management For All

Wealth management is no longer a niche service. Although it is still availed of by several high net worth individuals, anyone wanting to obtain valuable advice pertaining to managing their wealth can go to dedicated wealth management firms.

Different agencies charge different rates based on the expertise of their professionals and the net worth of their clients. This opens doors for not-so-affluent businesses and individuals to approach suitable wealth management firms to obtain fruitful advice.

When it comes to wealth management in 2021, there are several trends that a wealth management company and a client should take note of. However, you can always start by focusing on the ones discussed here!