Page 16 - Investment Advisor - November 2021

INDUSTRY INSIGHTS

SEEING THE LIGHT creating its own next-generation and change promises that the wirehouses
Along the way, wirehouse management emerging investor pipeline for referrals will remain a significant presence in
began to see the light and has been to Morgan Stanley advisors. Whether or wealth management, despite consistent-
aggressively investing in both advisor not these up-selling technology strate- ly losing market share to independents
and client experience digital and finan- gies work remains to be seen, but on for the past two decades.
cial planning technology. Merrill Lynch paper, the opportunity to harvest these If wirehouse management can contin-
with its fast-growing Merrill Edge busi- millions of accounts holds great promise ue to make the big technology decisions
ness has successfully bolted on a digital to motivate these wirehouse advisors to to improve the advisor and client experi-
platform aimed at lower net worth and continue to stick around. ence, wirehouses have the opportunity
next-generation investors that has suc- What these recent technology devel- to stem the slide in their market shares,
cessfully onboarded hundreds of billions opments have also shown is that despite and with any luck, even increase their
of dollars in client assets. Combined with their many flaws and self-inflicted momentum if the bull markets continue.
the tens of millions of bank accounts at wounds, these iconic Wall Street brands That is — the cynic in me thinks — until
its parent company, Bank of America, still carry a lot of weight in investors’ the next financial catastrophe they cause
Merrill has successfully developed a minds when it comes to choosing which gets in the way of all of that again.
growing pipeline for cross-selling and wealth manager to work with and why.
referrals to Merrill advisors. They also show that while these lega- Timothy D. Welsh, CFP, is president, CEO and
Morgan Stanley, also seeing the cy institutions are often slow to react, founder of Nexus Strategy, LLC, a consulting
fruits of a down-market technology they have proven that they can adapt to firm to the wealth management industry and
play, quickly followed suit by acquiring the changing environment and shifting can be reached at [email protected] or on
Etrade and its millions of customers, consumer preferences. This ability to Twitter @NexusStrategy.

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14 INVESTMENT ADVISOR NOVEMBER 2021 | ThinkAdvisor.com