BOSTON -- Wealth management firms that want to compete in the mass affluent and high-net-worth markets will have to consider integrating their front-office environment, according to a new report from Aite Group.
The shift may mean moving to a complete and pre-integrated advisor platform or through the use of a front-office integration framework. Aite Group's study reveals that retail banks and brokerage firms are leaders in the wealth management industry when it comes to platform deployments. By analyzing 250 deployments across five of the leading advisor platform providers, it was found that 75% of deployments can be contributed to these two industry sectors.
According to Alois Pirker, senior analyst at Aite Group and author of the report, "For too long, wealth management firms have thrown far too many tools at their advisors without considering how certain tools fit into the advice process and without defining a consistent technology strategy for the front office. An integrated front-office environment will increase advisors' productivity within a firm, and it will help attract and retain top advisor talent."
The report analyzes the requirements in the wealth management front office, defines the wealth management advisor platform concept, and differentiates requirements and implementation strategies by platform type and wealth management client segment.
