By 2026, Asia is expected to hold US$363 trillion in onshore addressable wealth among affluent and high-net-worth individuals. However, while the region’s wealth has surged, the infrastructure supporting it hasn’t kept pace, according to a new report.

While client expectations are evolving rapidly, service models are not matching their demands, and too many firms are still relying on outdated tools to serve a market that is moving on.

In its report, The Future of Asia Wealth Management 2025: Front Office Reimagined, global consulting and technology firm Accenture warns that Asia’s wealth industry is falling behind. Clients now expect digital-first experiences, hyper-personalized advice, and seamless engagement, but many institutions are still stuck in legacy operating models.

This is no longer just about improving efficiency; it's about enhancing overall performance. According to the report, it’s a strategic imperative to rebuild the front office from the ground up, from relationship management and advisory frameworks to the digital platforms that define modern client experience.

Outpaced by investors

Incrementalism has taken the industry as far as it can go, the report says. Tried processes like expanding business units or hiring more relationship managers ( RMs ) have delivered, at best, a mere tenth of the revenue uplift firms could achieve.

The real opportunity won’t come from doing more of the same. With 90% of the market still untapped, unlocking it will require bold, structural reinvention, not just incremental change.

At the core of this reinvention is the front office, not merely its digitization, but its reimagination. Accenture says a new model is required, one that integrates strategy, technology, human advice, and operational discipline into a cohesive engine for growth.

The challenge is that many firms in Asia still cling to legacy models, betting on incremental upgrades when what’s needed is a wholesale redesign.

Accenture’s research, spanning over 4,700 investors and interviews with C-suite leaders across 11 Asian markets, notes that affluent and high-net-worth investors are evolving faster than the firms that serve them. Their needs are more sophisticated, their demands more personalized, and their expectations shaped by digital-first experiences.

They want access to alternative investments, seamless cross-border servicing, and real-time, contextual engagement, not just from people, but from platforms.

Front office transformation

In its report, Accenture introduces a framework of critical levers, including pricing, penetration ( onshore and offshore ), productivity, and proposition, that together define the architecture of this front-office overhaul.

While all are essential, it is productivity, particularly of existing RMs, that stands out as the most decisive factor. Many firms still believe that growth is primarily a function of headcount. The data suggests otherwise.

Enhancing the productivity of current staff through intelligent tools, agentic AI, streamlined processes, and real-time data integration delivers far higher returns than adding more bodies to the floor.

Indeed, one of the most striking data points in the report is the estimate that a firm focused deliberately on RM productivity, pricing discipline, and targeted penetration could triple its wealth revenue over three years.

That level of transformation isn’t theoretical; it’s modelled, costed, and achievable, provided firms are willing to shift away from a business-as-usual mindset, Accenture says.

And yet the shift isn’t merely technical; it’s philosophical. It requires a redefinition of what the front office is: not just a place where client interactions happen, but the nexus of value creation, performance management, and experience design.

Asia’s leading firms are beginning to embed this thinking into how they build their operating models. Some are introducing tiered human advice frameworks that match complexity with the right level of engagement – high-touch for ultra-high-net-worth clients, assisted digital channels for the affluent. Others are creating super-app front doors, integrating brand, content, and service into a single, orchestrated platform.

But the transformation will stall if firms fail to integrate these efforts into a single operating rhythm, the report says. Too many banks have digital initiatives running in silos, disconnected from advisory flows and performance tracking.

This is where the report’s vision of an integrated sales and advisory model becomes powerful, one where the CIO ( chief investment office ) function, RM pools, digital channels, and pricing governance all connect back to a central strategy.

Innovate every channel

Gen AI plays a role here, certainly. But the next wave belongs to agentic AI, systems that interpret context, make decisions, and act autonomously.

These technologies are already showing how they can automate RM workflows, generate hyper-personalized insights, and dynamically adapt advice delivery.

But for the gains to be sustained, AI must be embedded into the very design of the front office, not bolted on as a late-stage upgrade.

This isn’t lost on Asia’s wealth leaders. The report captures strong sentiment from industry figures who view front-office transformation not as a tech project, but as a strategic imperative. For firms competing across fast-moving, multi-market environments, the operating model becomes a lever of agility, scale, and client intimacy all at once.

And that’s what’s ultimately at stake. Asia’s wealth landscape is no longer a market waiting to be developed; it’s a high-stakes, high-potential battleground.

With mass affluent clients growing in number and wealth corridors shifting towards Asia, the firms that will win are not those expanding linearly, but those that can scale smartly, engage authentically, and deliver consistently, across every channel, every segment, and every interaction.

While the report offers a blueprint for closing gaps in the system, it emphasizes that the burden of execution lies with the industry. The front office isn’t just the starting point; it’s the growth engine. The question is whether firms are ready to rebuild it for what lies ahead.