Our expanded FinovateFall conference is coming up on September 11 through 14, and we’re taking a look at each of the six summit discussions that will take place after the demos. Today, we’re examining wealth management and investing.

Summit #3: Wealth Management & Investing

Wealth management and investing technologies were two of the hottest trends from 2016. How has 2017 matured the market? Here’s a look at a few key changes to keep an eye on.

Industry consolidation

Following the recent influx of roboadvisors and investment technologies to the market, the past few months have brought some consolidation to the industry. We’ve seen five mergers and acquisitions in the last year, and expect there to be another handful of M&A announcements in this space in the following months. That said, it is likely the industries will take another three-to-five years to truly consolidate down to key players.

The hybrid approach will win

A year ago, roboadvisors took one of two approaches: a pure robo method (such as the Betterment model) and a hybrid strategy (such as Personal Capital’s approach of high-touch mixed with high-tech).  Today, the industry is tilting toward the hybrid approach, which has the potential to offer the best of both worlds. In fact, even Betterment has changed its tune. The company recently pivoted to include a human advice offering alongside its traditional, strictly-robo advice tool. Catering to clients who prefer a human touch (or are simply undecided) will lead to increased customer acquisitions in the long-run.

Larger players take the lead

Unlike years past, when smaller players dominated the wealth tech industry with their innovative approaches, the coming years will bring larger players into the competitive landscape. Blackrock, which acquired FutureAdvisor in 2015, is known as one of the pioneers in using an AI-based investing strategy for its clients. Since then, many other large financial institutions have also joined in; Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, UBS, Deutsche Bank, and many others have implemented AI and machine learning techniques to their wealth management approaches. Industry consolidation, such as in the Blackrock example above and with Northwestern Mutual’s acquisition of LearnVest in 2015, will increase the number of larger players in the space as more large firms scoop up smaller fintech companies.

The upcoming Wealth Management and Investing Summit at FinovateFall will span two days of discussions from industry thought leaders, top fintechs, and banks. Be a part of these live panel discussions at FinovateFall; register before tomorrow and save on your ticket. A few summit highlights include:

• Roboadvisors
• New asset classes enabled by technology
• Banks and robos: build vs. buy
• New investing tools: thematic investing
• Advisor platforms: using technology to enable advisors

This is the third of our six FinovateFall Summit series. Stay tuned next week, when we’ll cover regtech and insurtech.