They’re staid, boring and vanilla, and that’s just fine.
New research from Boston-based global analytics firm Cerulli Associates finds that asset managers in the United States are continuing to direct their focus on private bank and trust companies over the next two years and show no signs of decreasing.
“Private banks and trust companies control $4.4 trillion in wealth management assets Donnie Ethier, associate director at Cerulli. “By year-end 2020, this total is expected to reach $5.5 trillion.”
“84 pecent of asset managers expect to place a greater emphasis on the bank trust channel without increasing resources,” says Ethier. “They will focus on better executing on the resources already dedicated to the channel. However, many are prepared to take additional steps if this proves to be inefficient.”
“Asset managers that once felt that private banks and trust companies were becoming stagnant are now reconsidering,” Ethier explains. “Banks continue to ease the obstacles of gaining entry onto their platforms and are offering more competitive products. This has resulted in a greater emphasis on the private bank and trust companies.”
Cerulli’s latest report, U.S. Asset Management Opportunities in Banks 2016: Evaluating the Progress Towards Open Architecture, focuses on the evolving relationship of investors, asset managers, and banks. It analyzes the best-practice banks that have centralized the investment decision-making process across all of their wealth management platforms, including broker/dealer, trust department, registered investment advisor, and family office
With more than 20 years serving financial markets, John Sullivan is the former editor-in-chief of Investment Advisor magazine and retirement editor of ThinkAdvisor.com. Sullivan is also the former editor of Boomer Market Advisor and Bank Advisor magazines, and has a background in the insurance and investment industries in addition to his journalism roots.
