71 connected strategy for asian wealth management ^Top program with a newer generation of more financially literate consumers and greater investor protection outcomes. Incumbent firms will have to assess which parts can and should be built de novo versus which parts should be built using the legacy technology stack, which comes with its challenges of integration across organizational silos and disparate technologies. Implication #6. Connected wealth managers will blend skillsets and client experiences from technology-led firms with new ways of delivering unbun- dled, personalized solutions For most retail investors the delivery of wealth management solutions remains highly packaged and bundled. This is exemplified with the role that mutual funds still play. The key benefit of this simple, one-size-fits-all solution has been the economies of scale it affords. Trending: Mass customization and the future of the mutual fund The mutual fund has, for decades, been a practical, efficient way for retail clients to invest even a small amount of money in diversified and professionally managed solutions. ETFs have since brought tax efficiency in the US and access to lower- cost, rule-based solutions. They are good solutions as long as the assumed objective of the investor is to suitably balance growth and volatility. Recently, digital technologies, from process automation, fractionalization, algorithms and blockchain have created the potential to allow for the mass-reproduction of key elements of a fund and of a portfolio of funds investment processes. It is now technically feasible for wealth managers to offer a digital account behaving as a “mutual fund” of one. This mass customization of key components of an investment process at scale, centered on a retail digital account, would address a broader set of client aspirations in tailoring passive strategies (direct indexing), in incorporating principles or ESG dimensions or in establishing more granular outcomes than the traditional risk/return benchmark-based approach. Adjacent features could also be integrated using technologies to better reflect the behavioral preferences or educational needs of each individual investors. While we do not foresee mutual funds and ETFs being ushered out in the near future, we see retail digital accounts becoming a key offering of leading wealth managers.