48 connected strategy for asian wealth management ^Top It remains to be seen whether similar verticalization will occur in wealth management where the data from a connected relationship allows wealth managers to design more relevant wealth products and move upstream to asset management. Interestingly, several providers of business-to-consumer roboadvisors in Asia are already promoting their unique investment management capability versus their easy-access to third-party products. We are also yet to see an incumbent or a newcomer offer a connected retailer strategy with a focus on providing guidance all along the client investment journey as opposed to solely on the management of a portfolio of stocks, ETF or mutual funds. We see this as an opportunity and whitespace to exploit. connected producers Archetype description: In a Connected Producer architecture, product manufacturers such as asset managers or insurers connect directly with investors, thereby disinter- mediating distributors. They do so via proprietary direct channels or via third-party platforms. Asset managers can then benefit from direct access to client relationships and from reduced distribution costs. However, they would incur the cost to build and run direct platforms and client acquisition and marketing costs, which can be substantial. Case examples The Connected Producer architecture has gained traction in large, geographically dis- persed markets such as India and China as well as more mature markets such as Korea. In these markets multiple mutual fund companies have successfully set up their own direct businesses. • In China, the architecture is viable due to the high degree of connectivity with cus- tomers via mobile and Know Your Client (KYC) being easier due to Government identity databases. These factors allow existing asset managers who previously had no direct link to the end consumer to increase their share of the c.$3 trillion assets of the mutual funds industry. For example, many fund providers are now able to sell their funds directly to their customers via Caifuhao, which sits on Ant Finan- cial’s Alipay platform (a connected market maker we discuss in the next section. Caifuhao also gives firms access to artificial intelligence capabilities such as user profiling, operational optimization and smart marketing. A meaningful portion of funds sold in the connected producer model in China used to be money market funds. But as customers increased their familiarity with this delivery channel, they started to move up the risk-reward spectrum to include other asset classes such as