At the start of 2020, wealth managers were already facing significant challenges, including continued pressures on fees, the digital arms race, consolidation of the competitive landscape through M&A, and fiduciary regulation compliance costs to meet new state and SEC rules such as Regulation Best Interest.

And now a global pandemic.

How can wealth management executives help their clients and lead their organizations through this turbulent time, while thinking about longer-term strategy?

We believe that in addition to the urgent crisis management underway, Wealth Management firms should not put their strategy efforts on hold. This may seem counterintuitive, given the current climate. As the crisis unfolds, the fundamental challenges are not going away, and the crisis will only serve to exacerbate some of the challenges. Wealth management firms that focus exclusively on crisis mitigation and cost-containment will be left further behind coming out of the crisis.

It is difficult to think about strategy in times of crisis, that is exactly what the best organizations do.