The following is an extract from an article I wrote for ITAS, on the future of asset management. You can read the full article here. 

Historians of finance will look back on this era as the decade of disruption. Mergers abound. Regulation puts pressure on business models and transparency. Robo-advice and passively managed fund winnow fees.

At NextWealth, we refer to these forces as “scale, squeeze and fees.” What draws them together is a unifying trend: consolidation. It’s affirmed by the recent space of deals, including the union of Janus and Henderson, the merger of Standard Life and Aberdeen and the acquisition of Pioneer by Amundi.

The drivers of consolidation and implications for asset managers are themes I’ll explore in my remarks at the International Transfer Agency Summit in Luxembourg on February 28th. You can read the full article with my views on what lies behind the consolidation: fees and squeeze (that is, pricing and regulation) and the consequences (lower fees, rise of ETFs and a boost for boutiques).

Hope to see you at ITAS.

About the Author

Heather has spent most of her career in financial services helping asset managers, platforms and financial advisers improve their propositions, customer communication and to benchmark success against competitors. She was Head of Platforum until December 2017 and has also worked in digital marketing at Hitwise and Econsultancy.