Wealth Management Market Continues to Grow

The wealth management market will continue to grow through the end of the decade, according to a report from Boston-based Celent. By 2010, Celent expects the number of affluent and wealthy individuals in North America to increase by 24 percent, from 30.4 million today to 37.7 million. As a result, wealth management services will remain in strong demand, and wealth managers will need new technologies to support them, Celent says.

The future of wealth-management platforms lies in open architecture, according to the report. Managers will looking to add point-directed solutions to their offerings, and integrating those functionalities in existing platforms will be imperative. Additionally, automation of compliance and tax preparation will be required to free up wealth managers to focus on sales and service as clients become more sophisticated and knowledgeable about investments and demand more low-touch Web functionality, Celent notes.