43% of respondents have missed out on a business opportunity because of a lack of adequate systems.

Research findings from Compeer show a lack of adequate technologies is holding wealth management firms back. A study, published by the business performance benchmarking firm, surveyed wealth management firms collectively managing £150bn. It showed that although 86% of respondents believe technology can provide firms with a competitive advantage, nearly 40% thought their current IT setup was a barrier to scalability.

From an IT perspective, the most important challenge for the majority of respondents was digitalisation with nearly a third (31%) of respondents listing it as the most important challenge their firm faces. Amplifying this, 43% of respondents could recall an instance where the lack of a system which would help them to better understand their clients caused them to miss out on a business opportunity. Only a quarter (25%) of respondents are currently using a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system, although more are considering going down this path.

James Brown at Compeer says of the report “Investing in key technology is vital to put wealth managers ahead of their competitors. It enables wealth managers to free up time to actually service their clients, reducing the amount of missed opportunities. This need becomes painfully clear when you consider that two out of five respondents could name a concrete example of missing out on an opportunity because of their current IT system.”

63% of those surveyed envisage their assets under management growing by over 50% in the next 5 years and no respondents expect a decrease in technology spend. In fact, 75% of those asked said they had a good awareness of current systems available that would help them know their clients better. So, the potential exists to sharply reduce those missed opportunities in the near future.