Investors would consider switching from a wealth manager that doesn’t modernise and embrace new technology, according to new research.

Clients trust wealth managers who incorporate technology into their service, especially for portfolio management and client meetings.

Despite that, wealth managers often do not use their investment advisory tools with clients, because they reckon the tools are not suited to clients’ needs and too confusing.

According to a survey by fintec Avaloq, a quarter (25%) of investors globally would consider switching from wealth managers that failed to embrace new technology.

For investors in the UK, the survey suggested technology played a bigger role when it comes to establishing trust in their wealth manager. 72% of UK investors noted the importance of being able to see investment analytics and portfolio visualisation and being shown the impact of their investment decisions on their portfolio live in meetings.

Yet, half of UK wealth managers (50%) did not use investment advisory technology with clients due to the design not being optimised for client use (78%) and applications being too difficult to navigate (61%).

A particular tech pain point highlighted by wealth managers in the UK was a lack of integration between their various systems. The research showed that 57% of UK wealth management professionals feel their systems are not well integrated, compared to 45% globally, and 63% said that their data is seamlessly integrated across all the systems they use, compared to 58% globally.

Suman Rao, UK managing director at Avaloq said: “While wealth managers are under increasing pressure from clients to incorporate technology into their offering, many are struggling to keep up due to complex, outdated and poorly integrated technology systems.

“Despite this, their reliance on technology is growing by the day and demand from clients is only going to increase. If wealth managers want to remain competitive and ensure they are delivering top client service, they must have a well-functioning technology ecosystem.”

Globally, two thirds of investors (66%) said that being able to see investment analytics and portfolio visualisation was crucial to building trust with their adviser and 63% mentioned the value of being shown the impact of their investment decisions on their portfolio live in meetings.

But almost half (44%) of wealth managers surveyed described their systems as outdated and nearly a third (31%) claimed their systems are not suited to their needs.

The dissatisfaction is preventing many wealth managers from meeting their clients’ expectations, with 37% globally still not using investment advisory technology live in client meetings.

Key reasons included the user interface not being optimised for client presentations (78%) and the systems being too confusing for clients (65%). Other barriers included an inability to hide sensitive information (40%) and systems being difficult to navigate (39%).

The research was conducted among more than 3,000 investors and 300 wealth managers across Europe, Asia and the Middle East.