Outperform—Beat the Average: Key Levers for Top Performers in Wealth Management

For much of the last ten years, wealth managers have been able to reap the benefits from the rise in personal financial wealth, resulting from strong asset appreciation and economic growth in rapidly developing economies. A temporary halt in growth at the end of 2018 exposed the underlying fragility of the industry, leaving managers with lower revenues, higher costs and reduced profits. As we enter the new decade, being average is no longer an option. To be prepared for possible future lower growth rates in global personal financial wealth, managers must focus on opportunities to excel in the face of unfavorable market conditions. This paper aims to understand what differentiates top-performing wealth managers from the average and identify the key strategic levers wealth managers can use to stand out from the crowd.