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    Natalie Monko Lead Project Manager

    Wealth Management Software: Top Trends and Challenges to Consider

    With the digitization of the financial industry, the demand for wealth management (WM) software continues to surge. The wealth management platform market encompasses services like asset/investment portfolio management, personal retail banking, accounting, consulting, trading, and tax/budget planning.

    Since 2011, Surf has been delivering software products to the fintech sector. We have built dozens of projects, including banking, investment, and cryptocurrency trading apps.

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    Top 5 wealth technology trends

    To build a successful wealth management software project, it is crucial to look through the latest industry trends. This will help you determine what users expect to see.

    1. Robo-advisors

    The worldwide robo-advisory market is projected to climb from $18.71 billion in 2021 to $135.11 billion in 2026, at a CAGR of 48.08%. Powered by artificial intelligence (AI), robo-advisory involves algorithm-driven financial planning with no or little human intervention.

    2. Cybersecurity

    The damage from cybercrime across industries is projected to soar from $6 trillion in 2021 to $10.5 trillion annually by 2025. Cybercrime costs include aspects such as personal/financial data leaks or theft, reputational harm, and disruption of company operations. So, as providers of WM services deal with sensitive data, they have to safeguard against various risks.

    3. Hyper-personalization

    Employing AI and data analytics, hyper-personalization enables WM companies to provide tailored advice. Hyper-personalization can suggest products and services based on user investment goals, level of wages, financial situation, and specific interests.

    Refinitiv reports that 64% of millennials and 51% of investors aged 35–54 are likely to pay more for receiving personalized investing solutions. Another survey found that 82% of participants believe wealth managers who use hyper-personalization have more chances to achieve success than those who do not.

    A mobile investment app that makes individual recommendations (by Surf)

    4. Behavioral analytics

    Organizations are leveraging behavioral analytics to improve customer service. By integrating analytics tools, wealth managers generate comprehensive reports and study the influence of emotion and psychological factors on the audience’s investment activities. 

    At the beginning of COVID-19, behavioral analytics helped WM companies gain new clients and build trust-based relationships. BeFi Barometer 2020 says that WM professionals who used behavioral analytics software were almost twice as likely to attract customers after Q1 2020 as experts who did not (66% vs 36%).

    5. Cryptocurrencies

    Cryptocurrencies are an emerging wealth tech trend. Striving to earn income and motivated by the fear of missing out, clients drive WM firms to incorporate cryptocurrencies into their offerings. Yet today, 72% of high-net-worth individuals have already invested in cryptocurrencies.

    A crypto trading app for professional traders and enthusiasts (by Surf)

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    Wealth management software types

    There are multiple types of WM software, developed to address customer pain points or meet internal financial company needs.

    Wealth management software development issues

    Now let’s consider the main challenges teams have to address when building wealth management software for individuals.

    1. Security

    In order to ensure security, programmers implement features such as two-factor authentication, role-based data access control, biometrics, and data encryption. WM firms can set up AI-based monitoring to detect and block potential threats.

    Here at Surf, we use best tools and practices to protect wealth management software systems against potential threats. For example, we employ Flutter to not only cut costs and time to market but enforce security. Dart code is compiled into native, non-human readable code, which complicates reverse engineering.

    2. Scalability and high availability

    A WM system needs to process large amounts of data. Additionally, the platform has to be available under peak loads or if some part fails. To resolve this challenge, engineers can enable on-demand scaling. It is advisable to create a microservices architecture, represented by loosely coupled components that can be built, tested, deployed, and maintained independently from each other.

    3. Intuitive user interface (UI)

    If you want to make a wealthtech solution that will contain data analytics dashboards, it is crucial to properly visualize hundreds of metrics. For this purpose, IT experts should work out a comprehensive UI architecture of the application. Furthermore, it is crucial to make an intuitive interface and organize content in a way that users can easily find or do what they need. Have a look at some of our featured designs on the image below.

    Final words

    To build a wealth management solution that will meet end-user/business needs, it is essential to keep pace with the latest trends. Using advanced technologies and best software development practices, we deliver high-quality finance products while achieving scalability, high availability, and performance.