A CEO Agenda

By Anna Zakrzewski, Joseph Carrubba, Dean Frankle, Andrew Hardie, Michael Kahlich, Daniel Kessler, Martin Mende, Tjun Tang, and Andre Xavier

From Boston Consulting Group

Preface

The wealth management industry is over 200 years old. Yet for most of that history, providers have operated according to the same general playbook. It took the massive digital and regulatory disruption of the past 20 years to begin shaking up industry business models, and evidence suggests that most providers have moved slowly, with many still adhering to traditional ways of private banking.

Among the major obstacles to change are fear of losing key relationship managers (RMs) and clients, a belief that the high-touch model is crucial to success, and the ten-year bull market, which shielded players from having to make tough decisions sooner. Despite a significantly larger asset and client base, however, the industry’s profit pool remains about the same as it was more than a decade ago, having reached just $135 billion in 2019 compared with $130 billion in 2007.