The personal finance industry is undergoing huge changes as more and
more information is getting transparent and easy do it yourself software
are emerging. Although various solutions around wealth management have
emerged, none offer yet a comprehensive advisory system keen to the ones
available to the most wealthy individuals.
Banks, mutual funds and tax accountants have been traditionally the
pillars of the wealth management system for the vast majority of
americans. These traditional players have evolved very little in terms
of strategy towards online based services. They are mainly extensions of
their usual offerings.
This lead to emergence of new competitors such as:
- Turbo tax,
- Mint,
- Wealthfront, betterment
- Online brokers, online banks
Showing that there are some alternatives to this closed-end economic
system for 80% of the population presenting similar financial
characteristics.
No matter how encompassing this suite of product is, the individual
using them need to have a certain level of financial education to use
these new tools. However, there has been so far no encompassing
solutions for customers.
What does the future hold? The vast majority of people having likely the
same aspirations and mostly the same financial profile, there is room
for a new entrant to aggregate the various products and become a one
stop shop for customers, creating a new type of financial agent.
Examples are all around us: all the online brokers have setup rollover
ira accounts, Mint has started reviewing performance of your
investments, banks are now adding budgeting services similar to Mint,
turbotax has started to provide investment advice and in some countries
banks have acquired online banks and brokers.
The question becomes: will those new players be acquired by a large
financial corporation or will the major internet financial players
become financial corporation themselves providing a one stop solution
similar to banks? It seems that the financial industry will still
undergo some major transformations in the near future.
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