As the second quarter begins and we continue to adjust to life after the pandemic, it is hard not to feel the growing pressures of our environment. With new variants of COVID, political unrest, rising prices, as well as increasing scrutiny around global warming, there is a lot going on that inevitably seeps into the day-to-day operations of our industry.
Our US quarterly trends report aims to understand, analyze, and reflect on the top trends in the asset management industry from the previous quarter. It will delve into both the mega and micro-trends affecting the industry, for the purpose of helping marketers and asset managers identify potential threats and growth opportunities. This quarter we highlight these macro trends:
- Inflation: Economic instability and price hikes have put pressure on asset managers, who must now communicate more effectively with clients regarding inflation. We explore how marketing messaging and client communication can shift to address growing consumer concerns through transparency, expectation setting and contextualization.
- Flexible Work Environments: While financial professionals gradually return to the office, the increased flexibility of working remotely has only made the ability to communicate online a vital part of maintaining client relationships. We discuss how marketers can optimize their content strategies to better serve clients virtually.
- The Digital Transformation: In response to increasing regulation, the shift from active to passive investments, and impacts of the pandemic, firms are accelerating the digital transformation to increase efficiency and agility. We review examples of how artificial intelligence and cloud-based technology have been incorporated into asset management. We also discuss how businesses can use technology to increase personalization and connect with new audiences.
- Increasing regulations, and consumer expectations around sustainability: While the US has traditionally lagged in comparison to the rest of the world regarding sustainable investing, the impacts of climate change, growing political unrest, and other industry factors have led to an increased number of reports and regulatory changes around environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors. Subsequently, this has led to growth in the ESG sector. We summarize recent industry developments in this report, while also sharing resources for both marketers and advisors to better deal with the impacts of these changes.
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