MyVest CEO Anton Honikman co-hosted a presentation with Aite Group’s Wealth Management Research Director Alois Pirker entitled “Robo Advice: Revenge of the Incumbents” at the IN|VEST conference earlier this month.

Anton and Alois set the table by taking attendees through the evolution of the robo advisor, and how the robo influence has pushed wealth managers to adopt a more digital approach to serving clients. Aite estimates that digital advisor solutions will grow rapidly – from $90B in 2016 to $400B by 2018. Aite also estimates that more than 40% of that growth will come from “retail assets acquired by traditional incumbents.”

While incumbents have made strides to move into the digital age, they still face many challenges that need to be addressed head-on for continued progress. Inertia, lack of digital vision, and siloed legacy technology have been holding firms back from matching the innovation of disruptors.

However, these organizational hurdles can be overcome by leveraging existing strengths – valuable brand identities, deep customer bases, and strong balance sheets among them – as well as engaging in fintech partnerships (from service agreements to investments and acquisitions) to help them along their digital journeys.

By embracing the culture of change that fintech startups bring to the table, incumbents can take advantage of the tremendous growth opportunities that digital wealth has to offer. As Anton stated to open the session: “Incumbents, now is your time.”

Despite being the last session of the last day of the conference, the room was at capacity and the conversations continued well after it ended – to the point that the hotel cleanup crew had to usher attendees out!

The session resonated so well with attendees that we wanted to share the presentation, complete with key insights from Alois and Anton:

Want to read more about our time at IN|VEST 2017? Check out our conference highlights in this post.