Three pillars of transformation

Sanjay Sharma (00:04):
Hello, I'm Sanjay Sharma, Global Head of Private Banking and of Wealth Management business for SEI. Today I'm joined by Mayank Prakash Global COO of our UK client, Evelyn Partners. Today we are going to discuss about future of wealth. So Mayank, over last 10 plus years, if you look at there have been significant changes around us. So looking at that and what has happened over the last 10 plus years, what do you think where the industry is going? What is the future of wealth over next 10 years or so?

Mayank Prakash (00:36):
Sanjay, good to be here and good to partner with you as we have a strategic partnership on taking a compelling proposition to our clients. So it's good to partner with you. If I look back at the trend of how wealth management has evolved and we parade that forward, I think about this in three layers. There is clearly the democratisation of wealth that is changing the profile of clients and the clients who were traditionally wealthy and that was inherited wealth, is no longer going to be the mass base in 10 to 20 years from now. The second key thing to look at is the client interaction. And in the interaction with clients, we are going to see digitalisation and personalisation of that client interaction. And that's going to change the way we interact with clients beyond recognition from the way we have done it in the past, which has been based on human relationships being the primary tribe. And the third key change is the markets are changing and that means the traditional old margins are no longer going to be there. That means that platforms are going to have to consolidate, and almost every market, we're seeing that in China, we're seeing it in Singapore, we're seeing it in Italy, we're seeing it in US. We're certainly seeing it in the UK.

Sanjay Sharma (02:01):
So let's draw a little bit further on the first pillar, which is what people or the consumers, what do you think how they would be consuming those services, especially with all the technology and enhancements which are happening in the industry?

Mayank Prakash (02:13):
So first, I think the underlying base, which is true today and will be true tomorrow in our industry, is that wealth is a means to achieving life’s goals for clients. And those life goals are different at different points in life. They're different across different clients, they're different across different generations. They can be different for women compared to men. And that then means bringing the breadth of wealth management and toolkit to deliver a personalised solution to help that client achieve their life's goals. And technology is going to play a very key role in enabling that. However, at the end of the day, people are going to have to trust someone with their life’s goals. And for the foreseeable feature, I don't think it's going to be technology only because people trust people. People don't trust the faceless tech platform with their life's goals and ambitions. They may try it with a few messages on a social platform, but that's a very different decision from putting your life's most precious goals in the hands of an organisation who you trust.

Sanjay Sharma (03:34):
You always talk about people and you strongly believe in the people aspect of the oral ecosystem. If you had the right set of people, you can make a lot of things happen. Technology is an enabler. So I would love to hear your thoughts about people.

Mayank Prakash (03:49):
Well, first of all, personalising that interaction is important. No client or colleague can be a number. And that at its core is one of Evelyn Partner's three values that we stand by and that value sets our ambition high and gives me and my colleagues across the organisation a license to raise the bar on ourselves and each other on that. And that means, notice I do not call my colleagues staff and we will not use that word or give them an employee number. We do the same with our clients. If a client is unhappy, they will get a call from me rather than an email. I will go visit them. Now, digital technology is going to play a key part in supporting that personalisation so that the human colleague who is leading that interaction and is enabled with all of the insight to offer a better and better experience.

Sanjay Sharma (04:52):
No, I couldn’t agree more and I could see how our businesses have evolved over many years. 

Mayank Prakash (04:58):
It has, yes.

Sanjay Sharma (04:59):
That our personal interactions rather than emails just pick up the phone and have conversation.

Mayank Prakash (05:04):
Yes. And while we have commercial relationship, the reality is this is a trust-based relationship because that trust has to flow front to back across an organisation for every part of the organisation to actually do what is right by the client.