Center for Wealth Management Technologies

The future of wealth management industry lies on "enabling customized wealth management service for everyone". For instance, retirement pension plans, whose total size is as large as the national pension’s, has been shifting from Defined Benefit to Defined Contribution in recent decades. This implies that every individual has to in/directly manage his or her own retirement pension; it seems inevitable that those individual retirement pension managements will take one of the biggest parts in the financial industry. The worldwide record low interest rate along with the aging population further underscores the significance of establishing customized wealth management service at individual level for a sustainable life after retirement.

By the industry’s own nature, customized wealth management at an individual level tends to have a high marginal cost. At the moment, there is no organization who can actualize the customized wealth management at an individual level merely by reducing the marginal cost. Nevertheless, wealth management firms worldwide are fighting for the hegemony of this industry. Such fights are not only limited to the technological and industrial aspects, but also the regulative aspects. For example, Goldman Sachs merged a robo-advisor firm that expertizes in pension plan, China has been discussing a commencement of Defined Contribution pension, and U.S. department of labor legislated ‘Conflict of Interest Rule.’ This seems like a precious opportunity for Korean financial industry to extend its boarder to overseas because it has a competitive opportunity through technology not capital.

However, the competition is already on and such opportunities will not last long. Therefore, taking audacious initiatives is indispensable for the success. The technology for enabling the customized wealth management service for everyone is significant not only for the industrial influence but also for the secure life of nation’s aged population. Especially in Korea, the 48% poverty rate for old aged population reiterates the importance of such technologies. In conclusion, the winner of future wealth management industry will be the one who achieves a popularization of customized wealth management for everyone by lowering the service cost while improving the quality; this will be the "one who defines the business ecosystem and monopolizes the industry". This is only possible through the pre-emptive technological development. Therefore, the ultimate goal of this center is to develop technologies that enables the customized wealth management service for everyone.