Wealth Management Update 2002: The Race to Become the Trusted Advisor

Celent predicts that financial institutions can expect to earn close to US$800 billion in management fees at the end of 2007, with the high net worth segment accounting for the bulk of the fees with 37 percent. The mass affluent segment will not be far behind with 33 percent.

In a new report entitled "Wealth Management Update 2002: The Race to Become the Trusted Advisor,"Celent examines the current state of the wealth management market in North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific including customer and product segmentation, asset accumulation, spending, and projected revenues from wealth management. The research also provides an in-depth explanation of the components of a wealth management solution and briefly highlights the technologies available to help financial institutions seize the opportunities inherent in serving this marketplace. The report concludes with Celent’s view of the future outlook for wealth management systems at banks, brokerages, insurance companies, and private banks.

Isabella Fonseca, Co-author of the report, states," Based on speaking with major financial institutions in North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific, we found a number of differences in these regions, specifically in the solutions available in the market, in functionalities such as account aggregation and multi-currency, and in the implementation model. Celent predicts North America will continue to lead in the adopting wealth management technology well into 2007, with Europe will not be far behind. However, Asia-Pacific will exhibit the most aggressive compounded annual growth rate between 2001-2007 at 40 percent.

According to Pam Brewster, Co-author of the report, "Despite all of hoopla surrounding the latest cutting-edge technology driving the wealth management market, the quality of financial advisors will ultimately determine the level of success for each financial institution. As a result, training, nurturing, and retaining financial advisors still remains a top priority for all of the financial institutions in the wealth management market."

Celent will follow-up this market overview report with a four-part vendor evaluation series that will analyze and rank leading wealth management technology providers based on their core functionality.