Jonathan Hartley, client success director at Objectway, leads a team involved in the solution design for prospects. It aims to ensure the effi cient delivery of projects and manages the adoption of Objectway’s software. Mr Hartley has been working in the wealth management industry since 2014, leading large scale digital and culturalchange initiatives. He is also a qualifi ed executive coach and enjoys working with clients to help them move beyond their comfort zone.

Why is technology so important to the industry?

Technology plays a critical role in wealth management as the industry navigates shifting client expectations, economic volatility, and increasing competition. Clients demand personalised, seamless experiences, making tools like AI, data analytics, and digital engagement platforms essential for enhancing service quality and adviser productivity. The rise of fintech challengers has pushed traditional firms to modernise through cloud adoption, SaaS, and API integration, enabling agility and scalability. Furthermore, technology is crucial for regulatory compliance, operational efficiency, and business growth.

According to an industry research firm, 77 percent of investment services CIOs identify revenue generation as one of the top three critical outcomes of digital technology investments, with nearly half ranking it as the most important. This underscores the imperative for wealth management executives to align technology initiatives with overarching business goals.

By demonstrating how IT supports the firm’s mission-critical objectives in a volatile market environment, wealth firms can position technology as a strategic driver of growth and operational success.

What are the key trends shaping technology at the moment?

Key trends can be grouped into three functional areas:

Client and adviser experience: To service the varying needs of different generations, wealth managers should focus on technologies that help cater to the growing generations, as well as ones that improve and expedite the current client-adviser experience. These are the technologies in particular that firms should either adopt, trial or assess: adviser desktop platforms, client digital experience platforms, and hybrid digital advice tools.

AI and analytics: AI continues to play a crucial role, especially in enhancing client experiences. Firms are leveraging AI for personalised content, generating insights on client behaviour and robotic process automation to improve efficiency. AI is particularly impactful in onboarding, compliance, and portfolio management, helping streamline workflows and reduce manual tasks.

Operations and automation: Firms are transitioning to scalable and flexible cloud-based solutions to modernise infrastructure. SaaS platforms are becoming the go-to for client engagement, portfolio management, and other critical functions, providing agility in deployment and customisation.

What are the main challenges facing technology?

Wealth managers face increasing demands for personalised, seamless and digital-first client experiences. Delivering these while maintaining service excellence is a delicate balancing act. The proliferation of financial products and service channels adds to the complexity, highlighting how traditional operating models can be costly and inefficient.

Firms need to rethink their approach, moving beyond short-term cost-cutting measures to strategic initiatives that realign their operations with long-term goals.

A key challenge is to distinguish between operational complexity that adds value and redundancy that hinders growth. Automation, advanced data analytics and self-service tools offer potential solutions that can increase efficiency and improve productivity in both the back and front office. However, effective implementation of these technologies requires significant investment and careful alignment with business priorities.

Wealth managers must also consider a systematic, outcome-driven approach to transformation to ensure that technology initiatives not only streamline operations, but also improve the client experience. In addition, the industry faces the challenge of managing change while maintaining trust and reliability. Adapting to digital advances requires holistic strategies that integrate modern tools with human-centred service models.

Firms must prioritise projects with measurable impact, addressing internal efficiencies alongside customer-facing improvements. Success depends on their ability to balance innovation with operational stability, ensuring that technological evolution supports both immediate needs and sustainable growth in a competitive market.

What’s one book you think everyone should read?

Poor Charlie’s Almanack, by Charles T Munger. It’s full of wit and wisdom and encourages you to think about the world in a different way.

When’s the last time you failed spectacularly at something?

I volunteer at my son’s cricket club, and this summer, at very short notice, I umpired my first match. I didn’t grow upplaying cricket, so I don’t know many of the rules. And in this match that became clear. The parents on the sidelines were shouting at me for incorrect calls, and then it started raining. I kept the play going, because I wasn’t sure of what to do. Eventually someone had to pull us all off the pitch. I can laugh at it now, but it wasn’t a comfortable experience at the time!

If you couldn’t do your current role what would your dream job be?

I’d like to be a conference speaker. I’m one of those strange people who likes speaking in front of an audience.