Since the beginning of government-mandated lockdowns in March, Arizent has conducted monthly research surveys to help its subscribers navigate the pandemic. This report analyzes responses from the fourth in the series, a survey conducted in partnership with Celent. The extent to which COVID-19 has created challenges and opportunities for customer engagement and how wealth management firms are responding is explored.

From a wealth management perspective, Celent recognizes that, when looking at efforts to engage and support customers over the long term, respondents are overconfident in employee digital fluency and underconfident in customer digital fluency. We agree with respondent support that both digital and in-person human-to-human customer engagement will win in the “new normal,” but insist that they cannot overlook the need for a digital client experience strategy where trust is delivered digitally in conjunction with human advice. In addition to reviewing the survey results, the report concludes with four things wealth managers must do to emerge stronger post-pandemic.

Download a sample of the report here.