66 connected strategy for asian wealth management ^Top • New features will emerge in digital-first propositions to foster intimacy and digital trust • Progressive expansion of advice beyond investing to insurance and, potentially, health and wellness Looking further ahead, as newer technologies and media interfaces such as Virtual Reality become more prevalent, the digital advice experience will further resemble the human advisor experience. Implication #2. Connected wealth managers will significantly redefine the role, skillset and economics of advisors, sharing the benefits with consumers The advisor’s main role has traditionally been to provide “ad-hoc, analog connectivity” for clients to the wealth manager’s expertise and to shepherd clients through most of the steps in the customer journey. As newer cohorts of customers who are digital native become the main wealth client base, as wealth managers learn to educate and advise clients digitally, and as firms learn to use data to generate tailored advice and ensure ongoing engagement, firms will dramatically transform the role of the Advisor in the following ways: • Train advisors on becoming tech-empowered and able to operate with a range of digital tools • Increase advisor client loading ratios or retain fewer, higher quality advisors to serve clients • Increase coaching skillsets to explain in consumer-friendly terms the advice auto- matically generated for the client versus sales-oriented skills • Shift from sales-oriented, commission-based roles to coaching-oriented, salaried roles • Focus on relationship management with clients as opposed to on transaction sup- port and servicing • Advisor to focus on in-person financial planning at select moments of truth and life events for clients versus the go-to source for ongoing investment ideas and trade execution