CLIENT expectations are shifting - shaping the way in which advice, ideas and solutions in financial services are being structured and consumed. With or without the global pandemic, the calls for greater convenience, tailored advice and greater choices have grown louder. To stay on top of the game, banks need to give the right advice, at the right time, and in the right way.

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Giving advice is our core competence. As a focused wealth manager, giving advice means supporting clients as they make investment decisions by taking into account individual situations and requirements. As straightforward as this statement might sound, the reality behind it is evolving at a rapid pace.

The most relevant driver is heightened client expectations. High net worth clients expect dedicated human client advisers complemented by sophisticated digital tools and capabilities. This goes beyond channels that provide access to transactions - it is more about content. Wealth management clients expect to be provided with investment ideas that are both relevant and suitable for their specific portfolio at that particular moment. Bridging the gap between content and delivery by offering clients the best of both worlds is commonly referred to as hybrid advice - an industry trend.

At Julius Baer, the technological centrepiece for advising clients is DiAS, our award-winning Digital Advisory Suite. DiAS is a fully integrated, end-to-end advisory process solution from proposal creation to the execution of a trade. DiAS covers all asset classes and recommends content tailored to individual client requirements. Having improved operational efficiencies for our relationship managers (RMs) in Asia, DiAS has freed up significant time so they can better position themselves as trusted advisers to clients and deepen long-lasting relationships.

Top-quality advice made available to clients is one thing, but how advice is delivered completes the full experience for them. That is why we have brought RM-client connections to the next level by enabling secure documentation and order-taking functions on instant messaging channels such as WhatsApp and WeChat.

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The personalisation imperative

The future of personalisation in wealth management is not primarily about selling but about providing targeted information to clients on a regular basis. In this context, we have laid the foundation to use data and analytics to anticipate individual needs and build deep relationships. We are currently working on a pilot scheme that utilises machine learning technology to create dedicated equity investment ideas for RMs to share with clients.

The next step will be the enhancement of personalised content distribution channels through instant chat functions, providing advice and solutions to clients at their doorstep.

Value creation beyond advice

That is, however, not the end of the story. Similar to the advisory space, wealth managers are enhancing their discretionary offerings with new products and solutions. Keeping this trend in mind, we want to bring the advisory and discretionary worlds together using a fully modular architecture: enabling clients to choose their blend of advice, interaction and delegation. This will also empower our advisers to conduct holistic reviews of advisory and discretionary portfolios for clients and deliver exceptional client experience.

Similarly, wealth managers are witnessing an increased interest in digital assets - particularly from ultra high net worth investors who are considering them as part of a portfolio. We, like our peers in the industry, are identifying ways to enable institutional and accredited investors to tap a fully integrated trading and custody ecosystem for digital assets.

As a first step, Julius Baer has enhanced its research coverage for crypto coins with portraits of leading digital assets - providing an overview of their underlying technology, history, investment case and key risks. We have considered the impact of a nominal allocation to Bitcoin in a model portfolio, and, depending on the allocated amount, it turns out that Bitcoin actually improves the risk-adjusted performance in our analysis. Digital assets are poised to be an integral part of tomorrow's digital economy and Julius Baer is gearing up to serve its clients in this space.

Yet, the needs of high net worth clients today go far beyond traditional or innovative products into the realms of holistic solutions. Reconciling the professional activities and the international lifestyles of our clients with tax laws, social security systems and inheritance laws is highly complex and reliant on delicate conversations. To draw up bespoke solutions requires expert advice touching areas from wealth planning, financing, structuring and philanthropy counselling to family office services.

We strive for our platforms to play a growing role in profiling and sourcing solutions in these areas. Until then, seamless cooperation between our expert teams is key.

Agile wealth management

Across the past few years, we have seen how flexibility and malleability in the way we work have accelerated. The art of adapting quickly and smartly is imperative in today's fast-paced markets, with the ongoing geopolitical and pandemic movements.

To deliver on our bespoke solutions that are comprehensive and connected to our vast technology architecture, the bank is in the process of adopting agile methods - not only for software development, but for our entire "change-the-bank" activities, from front to back. This change in processes and mindsets will enable us to enhance client experience by focusing on client journeys, prioritising innovations that matter the most, and accelerating their delivery by decreasing wait times.

While we have come a long way, the work to enhance client experience with impactful and convenient solutions continues. We will accelerate our innovation cycles and drive the delivery of hybrid advice. But one thing will remain - our advice will always be organic and personalised.

The future will be driven by clients' expectation and acceptance of (technological) change, thus reshaping the value proposition of the investment advisory client journey. Nevertheless, it is our belief that understanding our clients' individual needs and preferences and catering to them will remain key. This will hinge on a collaboration between human advisers, who will remain instrumental in delivering a personable client experience, and robo-advisers that will deepen efficiencies and accuracies for us. Ultimately, it is all about finding the right balance.

• The writer is head, markets and wealth management solutions, Asia-Pacific at Julius Baer.