Reflections from the HaysMac Wealth meets FinTech Breakfast, London, 21 October 2026
Hosted by Saskia Smart (Senior Wealth Manager at HaysMac) and Joe Parkin (Strategic Sector Advisor at HaysMac), and joined by panellists Camila Beeston (Head of Digital Wealth Partnerships & Propositions EMEA at BlackRock), Mona Christensen (Client Director, Outcomes & Insights at St. James’s Place) and Joe Harris (Partner at Alpha FMC).
For decades, the UK wealth management industry has been characterised by steady evolution rather than dramatic transformation. Regulation, trust and legacy operating models have traditionally favoured incremental change over disruption. Yet, as discussions at the recent HaysMac Wealth meets FinTech Breakfast highlighted, that era is coming to an end.
Three powerful forces are converging to reshape the market: the rise of artificial intelligence, a new generation of financial influencers changing consumer behaviour, and an unprecedented wave of consolidation driven by private equity and strategic acquirers. Individually, each represents a significant trend. Together, they are creating a profound structural shift in how wealth management firms operate, engage clients and compete. The messages from industry leaders including Mona Christensen, Camila Beeston and Joe Harris were clear – wealth management is entering its most transformative period in a generation.
AI: The opportunity is real, but data is the battleground
Artificial intelligence dominates virtually every boardroom conversation across financial services. Yet, one of the most compelling themes from the panel was that the real challenge is not AI itself, but the data foundations required to make AI useful.
Many firms are already deploying AI-enabled solutions across portfolio reporting, client communications, CRM systems and operational workflows. However, according to the panel, much of the market remains stuck in what can best be described as “AI experimentation mode”. Firms are layering AI tools on top of fragmented technology estates without addressing the underlying data architecture.
As one of the panel argued, wealth managers should stop evaluating technology through individual use cases and instead focus on underlying capabilities, particularly data science, integration and governance. Firms may have implemented platforms such as Snowflake, Fabric or Databricks, but unless data is properly normalised, structured and governed, AI will simply amplify existing inefficiencies. The old technology principle of “garbage in, garbage out” remains true, only now it can happen at unprecedented speed and scale.
This creates an important divide within the market. Larger firms with capital and resources are increasingly investing in enterprise-wide AI capabilities and data infrastructure. Smaller firms are more likely to adopt AI through point solutions offered by software vendors. Both models will coexist for some time, potentially leading to a two-tier technology landscape that may take five to ten years to converge.
The winners will not necessarily be those with the most AI applications. They will be those with the cleanest data.
The advice gap creates a powerful AI opportunity
The UK advice gap remains one of the industry’s biggest challenges. Millions of consumers require financial guidance but cannot economically access traditional advice models.
Technology has long been viewed as part of the solution, but AI may finally make meaningful progress possible. Panel members discussed how AI can support personalised client engagement, automate routine processes and improve the economics of serving lower-value clients while keeping human advisors involved where trust and complexity matter most.
What emerged was not a vision of robo-advice replacing advisors, but rather a “human-in-the-loop” model where technology handles scale and efficiency while advisors focus on judgement, relationships and trust.
The industry’s future may be less about replacing advisors and more about augmenting them.
Finfluencers are rewriting the rules of client acquisition
If AI is transforming how firms operate, finfluencers are transforming how consumers engage with investing.
Perhaps the most striking discussion centred on the growing influence of financial content creators. Historically, wealth management has struggled to connect with mainstream consumers. Investing was often perceived as complex, intimidating and reserved for the affluent. Too often the industry tried to educate rather than engage, and unless there was intent to be educated, it failed.
Finfluencers have changed that.
By making investing relatable, accessible and engaging, influencers are reaching audiences that traditional providers have often failed to engage. Examples cited during the discussion included German creators generating hundreds of millions of annual views on topics such as ETFs, retirement planning and long-term investing.
What is particularly notable is that this is no longer confined to younger demographics. Research and industry experience suggest that engagement through social platforms now spans multiple generations. Consumers increasingly turn to social media for financial information, discussion and inspiration.
The implications for wealth and asset managers are significant.
For years the industry has focused on financial education. Finfluencers have demonstrated that consumers may not want to be educated in a traditional sense. Instead, they want to be engaged. They want investing explained in ways that are relevant to their lives, aspirations and concerns.
There are also examples of large investment firms developing their own people into significant voices on social media, and this is seen as a more natural way forward for these organisations than to sign-up finfluencers.
The challenge, of course, is ensuring appropriate guardrails. Compliance, suitability and consumer protection remain critical. Regulators are rightly increasing their focus on this rapidly growing channel. Yet the panel consensus was clear: despite the risks, finfluencers represent a net positive for the industry if managed appropriately.
Trust remains wealth management’s most valuable asset
Despite the excitement surrounding AI and digital engagement, one theme emerged repeatedly throughout the discussion: trust.
Consumers may use ChatGPT to model their retirement plans. They may learn about ETFs on Instagram. They may arrive at meetings armed with AI-generated recommendations.
But when faced with major financial decisions, most people still want reassurance from another human being.
Advisors increasingly report clients bringing AI-generated answers into conversations and asking, “Is this right?” Rather than eliminating the advisor relationship, technology may actually increase the demand for trusted validation.
In many respects, AI and finfluencers are changing how clients begin their financial journey. They are not necessarily changing who clients trust to help them make final decisions.
That distinction is critical.
M&A: Consolidation enters its next phase
The third major theme from the breakfast was consolidation.
Private equity has fundamentally reshaped the UK wealth management landscape over the past seven years. Firms have been acquired, platforms combined and market share consolidated at an extraordinary pace.
Yet a fascinating observation from the panel was that the original private equity thesis remains only partially complete.
The expected journey was straightforward: acquire businesses, integrate operations, remove costs and then use scale to drive innovation and differentiated client propositions. While acquisition activity has been highly successful and integration is progressing, the innovation phase has yet to fully materialise.
The reason again comes back to technology and data.
Many consolidators are still working to unify multiple operating systems and create consistent data layers across acquired businesses. Only once these foundations are in place can they unlock the innovation and productivity gains that were central to the original investment case.
This suggests that the next phase of consolidation may look very different from the last.
Rather than focusing solely on scale, future value creation is likely to come from technology-enabled differentiation, improved client experiences and operating leverage driven by AI.
Banks are back
Another notable trend is the increasing re-entry of banks into wealth management.
Recent transactions and strategic activity indicate major financial institutions are once again seeking to build integrated wealth propositions that extend from current accounts through to private banking and wealth advice. Examples discussed included NatWest’s acquisition of Evelyn, Lloyds’ move to take full ownership of Schroders Personal Wealth, and ongoing market activity from Barclays.
This reflects a broader recognition that wealth management represents an increasingly important component of lifelong customer relationships.
For banks, wealth is no longer a peripheral service. It is becoming a strategic destination.
The next decade will belong to firms that can combine all three
Looking ahead, the most successful firms will not be those that focus exclusively on AI, M&A or digital customer engagement.
They will be those that successfully combine all three.
They will build AI on robust data foundations. They will embrace new consumer engagement channels without compromising trust. They will use consolidation not simply to achieve scale, but to create genuinely differentiated propositions.
Most importantly, they will recognise that technology is not replacing relationships. It is reshaping them.
The UK wealth management industry has spent much of the last decade consolidating. The next decade will be defined by innovation.
And for the first time in a generation, the pace of change may finally be faster than the industry’s ability to ignore it.
