In response to market demand, Aite Group, LLC has expanded its Retail Securities & Investments practice and is rebranding it to reflect Aite Group’s increased focus on wealth management. The expanded Wealth Management practice complements Aite Group’s other service offerings, which focus on Institutional Securities & Investments, Retail Banking and Wholesale Banking.
Fueled by the current financial crisis, the global wealth management industry is evolving at a staggering pace. Firms that long dominated the wealth management space have seen thousands of advisors and billions of dollars in client assets leave their firm over the past few quarters alone. At the same time, independent registered investment advisors, independent broker/dealers, and online brokerage firms have gained market share. As such, it is more important than ever that wealth management firms and service providers to the wealth management industry fine-tune their positioning and product capabilities in order to effectively compete in this rapidly changing market space.
“The current markets hold an unprecedented level of opportunities and threats for players in the wealth management industry,” says Aite Group research director Alois Pirker. “As the cards in the wealth management game continue to be reshuffled, firms that fully understand the changes taking place in the market – and adapt their unique selling propositions accordingly – will find great opportunities to gain market share.”
Alois Pirker, who has been promoted to research director to lead the wealth management practice, will maintain his focus on the registered investment advisor space, financial planning, separately managed accounts, and advisor-focused platforms and tools. Pirker has driven Aite Group’s wealth management research for the past four years. Prior to that, he was an associate director of investment applications at UBS Wealth Management in London. In this role he developed business requirements and managed the delivery of various initiatives targeted at the launch of UBS’s separately managed accounts business within the five largest European wealth management markets.
Douglas Dannemiller has recently joined the wealth management practice as a senior analyst, to expand the practice’s focus to the independent broker/dealer market, correspondent clearing and custody, and retirement products and services. Before joining Aite Group, Dannemiller spent a decade at Fidelity Investments in various roles, most recently as a vice president with National Financial, Fidelity Investment’s correspondent clearing unit. In this capacity he was responsible for industry and competitive analysis, market share reporting, and opportunity assessments.
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