Rich People Would Consider Google, Amazon to Manage Their Wealth

(Bloomberg) -- Forget traditional wealth management firms. If Google, Apple, Facebook or Amazon offered financial services, more than half of rich people might sign up.

Consulting firm Capgemini found that 56.2 percent of high-net-worth individuals would think about working with one of the four technology firms if they offered wealth management services, according to its World Wealth Report 2017. More than 81 percent of these people under 40 might turn to one of the tech giants. Same goes for 72.5 percent of those surveyed in the Asia-Pacific region.

The findings come as asset management firms are threatened by online wealth management tools. Capgemini’s study polled more than 2,500 high-net-worth individuals with investable assets of at least $1 million across North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia-Pacific.

Technology companies could use “their agility, their speed to market, their ability to leverage data, to personalize, to drive transparency,” areas where traditional wealth management firms are lacking, said Brian Sullivan, global head of financial services market intelligence at Capgemini. Still, he added, “it’s less likely that Big Tech will be a direct competitor and steal clients away, but you are probably more likely to see some partnerships and collaboration.”

For more on Capgemini’s findings, click here.

To contact the reporters on this story: Simone Foxman in New York at sfoxman4@bloomberg.net, Suzanne Woolley in New York at swoolley2@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Margaret Collins at mcollins45@bloomberg.net, Vincent Bielski, Heather Perlberg