Trending Themes in Asset and Wealth Management
We are pleased to bring you the nineteenth edition of "The Monthly Market Pulse - Trending Themes in Asset and Wealth Management"
This edition delves into three pivotal trends significantly shaping the asset and wealth management sector:
- From Recordkeepers to Digital Coaches: How AI Is Redefining the DC Participant Experience - AI is transforming DC RKs from transactional administrators into providers of personalised, AI-enabled participant guidance, creating differentiation through trusted, proactive retirement engagement at scale
- Tokenization: Moving from Experimentation to Competitive Advantage for Asset Managers - Tokenization is shifting from pilot initiatives to a strategic growth lever, enabling asset managers to drive product innovation, operational efficiency, and broader investor access through digital asset capabilities
- Beyond Productivity: AI-Augmented Advice Reshaping Advisor Workflows in Wealth Management - Wealth managers are embedding AI across advisor workflows to enhance personalisation, automate routine tasks, and scale advisory capacity, moving from AI-assisted insights toward AI-enabled execution
These interconnected trends underscore a dynamic environment where evolving client expectations, a focus on comprehensive service, and a fundamental shift in investment vehicle preferences are collectively shaping the opportunities and challenges for Asset and Wealth Management firms aiming for future growth. This collective evolution signals a profound transformation across the sector, pushing firms to rethink traditional models and embrace new approaches to remain competitive and relevant.
From Recordkeepers to Digital Coaches: How AI Is Redefining the DC Participant Experience
Introduction
Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming defined contribution (DC) retirement plans from transactional recordkeeping platforms into personalized digital guidance ecosystems. As participants increasingly seek tailored advice and seamless experiences, recordkeepers are leveraging AI to deliver scalable engagement, improve servicing, and support better retirement outcomes
According to JP Morgan’s 2026 DC Plan Participant Survey, 73% of participants wish they could “push an easy button” and fully delegate retirement planning and investing, while 86% of Gen Z participants believe employers have some responsibility to help employees save for retirement (survey included 1,716 participants and 512 retirees)
Setting the Context: Several converging trends are accelerating AI adoption across the retirement ecosystem, including growing participant acceptance, increasing sponsor interest, and the need to modernize legacy service models
- Participant readiness is increasing: Invesco’s Winter 2026 DC Participant Pulse Survey found that 53% of participants already use AI-powered tools for financial planning or investment decisions, although only 25% fully trust AI to select investments without human review; trust rises to 55% when human oversight is involved
- Plan sponsors see potential: T. Rowe Price’s 2026 U.S. Retirement Market Outlook highlights that 66% of plan sponsors see value in AI-powered virtual assistants that answer common 401k questions
- Legacy infrastructure is a constraint: FIS notes that the DC industry still relies heavily on legacy recordkeeping systems, creating opportunities for AI-enabled personalization, automation, and participant servicing
Industry Response & Adaptation: Recordkeepers, advisors, and retirement technology providers are embedding AI into participant and advisor experiences
AI-Powered Participant Engagement
- Corporate Insight (May’26): Found Fidelity and Voya leading retirement-plan virtual assistant capabilities, with stronger in-chat account information and transactional functionality
- Vestwell (Apr’26): Reported that 94% of inbound participant inquiries are handled by AI agents, while participants can interact with the platform in 20 languages
AI-Assisted Advice & Decision Support
- Betterment (Mar’26): Introduced an AI-enabled Account Recommender that combines advisor-built logic with AI-generated explanations and fiduciary guardrails
- RPAG (Feb’26): Launched Auto Assistant, an AI-powered answer engine that provides retirement plan advisors with contextual responses and workflow support
Evalueserve Perspective
As AI capabilities mature, competitive differentiation is likely to shift from recordkeeping efficiency toward the ability to deliver personalized, trusted, and proactive participant experiences at scale. To capture the opportunity while maintaining participant trust, recordkeepers should:
- Embed governance early: Incorporate AI oversight, explainability, and data controls into vendor due diligence and platform governance
- Focus on augmentation, not replacement: Use AI to complement human guidance, particularly for high-stakes retirement decisions
Build AI-ready participant journeys: Redesign education, servicing, and communication workflows for personalized, AI-enabled delivery
Tokenization: Moving from Experimentation to Competitive Advantage for Asset Managers
Tokenization is rapidly becoming a strategic priority for asset managers, moving beyond pilot programs toward practical business applications. Once viewed as an experimental blockchain use case, tokenization is rapidly emerging as a transformative force across the investment industry with asset managers beginning to recognize its potential:
- 84% of financial institutions view tokenization as strategically important, highlighting its growing role in the future of asset management, as per Broadridge's Tokenization Pulse survey
- Momentum is particularly strong in the fund industry, with 80% of financial services firms expecting widespread adoption of tokenized funds within the next five years, creating a distinct competitive advantage for early adopters
Setting the Context: Asset managers are increasingly leveraging tokenized funds to enhance operational efficiency, improve liquidity, enable fractional ownership, and deliver enhanced investor experiences. Adoption is further supported by continued advancements in blockchain infrastructure and increasing institutional participation
- According to Calastone forecasts, tokenized fund AUM will surge from $4 billion in 2024 to $235 billion by 2029, underscoring tokenization's potential to fundamentally reshape how investment products are structured, distributed, and serviced
Industry Response & Adaptation: Asset managers are shifting from experimentation to implementation by launching tokenized products, building digital capabilities, and forming partnerships across the blockchain ecosystem. Many firms are also modernizing operations to prepare for a future in which traditional and tokenized assets coexist
- BlackRock (Jul'26): BUIDL (BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund) holds $2.93 billion in tokenized assets across Ethereum, Avalanche, and Solana. The firm also filed for two additional tokenized funds and on-chain shares for a separate $7 billion money market fund
- Hamilton Lane (Jun'26): Expanded investor access to its tokenized Senior Credit Opportunities Fund (HLSCOPE) through a blockchain-based feeder structure
- P. Morgan Asset Management (May'26): Launched JLTXX, a tokenized money market fund on Ethereum, in partnership with Anchorage Digital to support institutional adoption
Evalueserve Perspective
For asset managers, tokenization presents an opportunity to drive innovation, enhance operational efficiency, and expand access to new investor segments. Firms that build capabilities early may be better positioned as digital assets become more mainstream
- Launch Tokenized Funds: Expand access through tokenized money market, fixed-income, ETF, and private market products
- Build Strategic Partnerships: Collaborate with tokenization platforms, custodians, and blockchain providers to accelerate market entry
- Develop Digital Expertise: Invest in technology, governance, and talent to support long-term growth
Start with Cash Management Products: Use money market and short-duration fixed-income funds as a lower-risk entry point, where adoption is already gaining momentum
Beyond Productivity: AI-Augmented Advice Reshaping Advisor Workflows in Wealth Management
Introduction
Artificial intelligence is rapidly evolving from a productivity enhancement tool into a strategic enabler of advisor workflows across wealth management
- Edward Jones and Morning Consult's survey of financial advisors published in Jul’26 found that 82% of financial advisors already use AI, while 53% view AI as an opportunity to focus on higher-value client work
- The study also highlights that client conversations are changing, as investors increasingly compare advisor recommendations against AI-generated insights and information available online
As a result, wealth management firms are increasingly embedding AI into advisory processes—not to replace advisors, but to help them deliver more personalised, contextual, and timely client interactions
Setting the Context: The industry's focus on AI-enabled advice is being driven by rising client expectations and advisor capacity constraints. Recent industry research highlights several factors accelerating adoption:
- Personalization remains a challenge: Only 17% of high-net worth individuals (HNWIs) describe their advisory experience as seamless and personalized as per the Capgemini’s World Wealth Report 2026. This highlights a significant opportunity for firms to enhance client experiences through AI-enabled insights and recommendations
- Advisors want greater automation: The same report found that 76% of advisors would like AI-enabled systems to automate routine activities, allowing them to devote more time to client engagement and relationship management
- Productivity pressures persist: Deloitte estimates advisors spend nearly 70% of their time on administrative and operational activities and projects 30%–100% productivity improvements from agentic AI by 2032, depending on adoption maturity
Industry Response: Recent industry developments demonstrate how firms are operationalising this shift:
- Rockefeller Capital Management (Jun’26): Partnered with Anthropic to develop an AI-enabled wealth management platform powered by Claude, focused on client meeting intelligence, operational workflows, and internal support
- Morgan Stanley (Jun’26): Announced plans to provide corporate clients' AI agents with direct access to its stock-plan administration platforms, signaling growing acceptance of agent-driven servicing models
- RightCapital (Jun’26): Launched Iris, an AI planning agent capable of interpreting client information, identifying planning anomalies, and running retirement simulations directly within advisor workflows
These developments reflect a broader transition from AI-powered assistance toward AI-enabled execution embedded throughout the advisory process
Evalueserve Perspective
As AI capabilities continue to mature, wealth managers are likely to shift their focus from isolated AI use cases to enterprise-wide integration across the advisory value chain
- Scale advisor capacity: AI-enabled workflows could help firms serve more clients and deliver more personalized engagement without proportionately increasing the advisor headcount
- Transition from insights to execution: Agentic AI may accelerate the transition from generating recommendations to executing tasks across planning, servicing, and client engagement workflows
- Operationalize AI for competitive advantage: Firms that embed AI across the advisory value chain may be better positioned to improve scalability, consistency, and overall client experience
