Structural Tailwinds and Structural Challenges
By nearly every measure, the structural conditions for wealth management growth have never been more favorable. A US$170 trillion intergenerational wealth transfer is underway. The ultra-high-net-worth segment has grown by 350% over the past decade. Private equity confidence remains high, accounting for 78% of M&A activity in the sector.
However, the industry faces a set of structural challenges that is equally impossible to ignore. Sixty-five percent of key advisors plan to retire by 2030. Compensation expenses at wealth management firms are rising at 8.9%, nearly twice the pace of inflation. Furthermore, the industry suffers from persistent service and efficiency bottlenecks that no amount of optimism resolves.
The firms that will thrive in this environment are making deliberate decisions about how to scale their operations, empower their advisors, and harness the power of digitization to serve clients in more effective ways. At the center of that transformation is a concept that is reshaping how wealth management technology is designed and deployed: the unified advisory platform.
The Unified Advisory Platform
Rather than assembling a patchwork of disconnected tools, leading firms are moving toward integrated environments that centralize customer relationship management, portfolio data, financial planning, client communication, and household-level analytics in a single advisor workstation. The efficiency gains and client experience benefits are real, and the competitive implications for firms that move early (and for those that don’t) are significant.
The 2026 Wealth Management Forum
These are the conversations that will define the 2026 Datos Insights Wealth Management Forum (WMF) on October 21 in New York. Now a fixture on the wealth management calendar, the WMF brings together more than 150 senior executives from banks, broker-dealers, trust companies, registered investment advisors, and family offices for a full day of peer-driven conversation, research-grounded insight, and candid discussion.
As one returning attendee put it: “Hearing smart people share what they’re doing to ultimately solve household wellness needs, financial wellness needs, it’s just so educational for me and enlightening for me. And it allows me to go back with a lot of great ideas and a couple of new friends.”
Keynote and Featured Speakers
This year’s Forum opens with a keynote from Steve Quirk, Chief Brokerage Officer at Robinhood. Quirk’s perspective, forged at the intersection of mass-market accessibility and professional-grade execution, will frame the day’s conversations. The keynote stage will also host a returning fan favorite, a speaker whose prior appearance at the Forum generated some of the most animated hallway conversations of the day.
Roundtables and Panel Topics
The heart of the WMF is its interactive format. Attendees join structured, moderator-led discussions grounded in Datos Insights research, alongside practitioners facing comparable decisions. The program addresses some of the industry’s most consequential topics including:
Agentic AI: Proof of Concept to Production
Moves the AI conversation into the operational realities of deployment, including governance frameworks, change management, advisor adoption, and the metrics that separate meaningful progress from expensive pilots.
Household Tax Optimization
Examines how the shift toward unified household-level portfolio construction is enabling firms to deliver measurable after-tax value and what the platform, data, and advisor workflow requirements look like in practice.
Alternatives Access in Managed Accounts
Addresses the structural and operational barriers that have historically kept alternative investments outside the managed account framework, and profiles the approaches that are breaking those barriers down.
Leveraging the Commercial Banking Relationship
Focuses on one of the industry’s most underexploited opportunities: converting business-owner relationships into comprehensive wealth mandates.
Personalization, Digital Engagement, and the Wealth Transfer
Asks how firms are building the digitization infrastructure and client engagement models needed to serve the next generation of wealth holders.
Decumulation as a Growth Strategy
Reframes retirement income planning, long treated as a technical service obligation, as a business development opportunity. Leading firms are building decumulation practices that deepen client relationships, expand wallet share, and create durable competitive differentiation.
Fraud, Authentication, and the Cybersecurity Imperative
Examines the escalating sophistication of financial fraud and the pressure it places on both client trust and operational controls.
Forum Details and Audience
The WMF is designed for senior decision-makers, including C-suite leaders, business line heads, and the technology and strategy executives setting direction for wealth management organizations. Attendance is curated, the conversations are candid, and the research behind every session is the most current available.
2026 Datos Insights Impact Awards in Wealth Management
The WMF is the occasion to celebrate the recipients of the Datos Insights Impact Awards. Nominations are being accepted through July 31 across 16 categories in three segments:
Client Experience and Operational Excellence
Covers advisor-client workflow innovation, client communication and engagement, client portals, digital marketing and automation.
Core Platform Innovation
Recognizes advances in the advisor desktop alongside financial planning, portfolio management, alternatives access, and clearing and custody.
Emerging Technologies
Highlights AI applications for client personalization, operational automation, advisor copilots, and portfolio analytics, as well as a dedicated category for retirement and income planning innovation. The segment also includes the Best WealthTech Startup of the Year.
Every category is open to both financial institutions and technology vendors, with up to two winners (one vendor and one financial institution) recognized per category. All submissions must reflect capabilities already in production.
The awards are evaluated by a panel of judges comprising senior financial institution executives, industry consultants, and Datos Insights advisors, with each submission assessed against eight defined criteria. Award recipients will be recognized at the October Forum and profiled in a Datos Insights research report distributed across our full client base.
To view the full agenda, register, or sponsor, visit the event website or contact the team directly.
Submit an award nomination for the 2026 Datos Impact Awards in Wealth Management here.
This article was featured in the July/August 2026 issue of Banking & Payments Bulletin. Learn more and subscribe here.
