Innovation in Wealth Management

The boom in Indian economy in last few years has a created a lot of HNIs. These people are looking for avenues to invest their wealth. They are educated, knowledgeable and demanding. The question is how is the Indian wealth management industry gearing up to meet the requirement of this segment?Going Digital and OnlineAs in other fields, technology and innovations will be the way forward for the wealth management industry as well. In fact, lot of advancements have already been incorporated in this field in the last five years. Traditionally, investment required lots of paperwork. But now it has been simplified to presenting the product details on tabs, investing online and providing the customers tools to analyze their investments through apps and portals. This has improved the transparency and made it easier for the HNIs to monitor their investments. Most banks are trying to digitize all paperwork related to investments to speed up the on boarding of clients.

Banks have brought about new features in their portals that enable customers to analyze their risk profile online and choose products that would match their needs and then carry on transaction. They have made banking services personalized by assigning relationship managers who would act as their wealth managers. This person would help them with their product related queries and provide investment advice as well. To ensure that the advice is appropriate and consistent, Banks make use of technology to educate the relationship managers.

Technology support for the Wealth Managers&bull Going digital with all the forms has helped to onboard the customers almost instantaneously&bull Innovations like wearable insurance devices which can monitor the health of the individual provide a dashboard to determine the pricing of the next policy&bull Offering products like remittance online

Customization of the wealth management using innovationFintechs are playing a vital role in this field by helping the banks with data mining and providing technological support in customer analysis. Big Data is used to mine a lot of customer information. Tools on artificial intelligence and machine learning are used to analyze the customer profile using various data points. These analyses are used to offer customized advice. Robots are also used to assist the customers in investments. In the Western countries robots are also used to model the investment for the customers as well. Looking ahead – 5 years from nowThe future looks very bright for the wealth management sector. The key is to continue with product and process innovation, adopt digital delivery and ensure wealth management firms do not breach the trust of the customers.

For an in depth understanding of the technological innovations in the wealth management industry, A B Ravi had a detailed discussion with Nitin Singh, MD & Head, Standard Chartered Wealth Management, India, Nimish Shah, Research & Products, State Bank of India and Milan Ganatra, CEO Miles Software