\n Artificial intelligence may be the defining technology story of 2026, but for wealth management firms in the business of advising complex, multi-generational families, the practical reality remains far more nuanced than the headlines suggest. The technology is making processes faster and more efficient, but it has not yet changed the fundamental nature of advisory work, and the gap between what AI promises and what it delivers in practice is where the real strategic decisions are being made.
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\nAt the recent Hubbis Independent Wealth Management Forum in Hong Kong, Harmen Overdijk, Co-Chief Executive Officer of Leo Wealth, offered a candid and experience-led assessment of how AI is shaping the independent wealth management landscape. Speaking on the second panel of the day, Overdijk drew on his firm’s direct experience to map the opportunities, the constraints, and the investment implications of a technology cycle that shows no sign of slowing down.\n <\/p>\n
Key Takeaways<\/p>\n
\n\tAI Has Not Yet Changed the Business Model: While AI is embedded across research and data workflows, the core advisory process remains fundamentally human-driven.
\n\tIntegration, Not Innovation, Is the Real Prize: The greatest near-term opportunity lies in connecting disparate systems rather than deploying novel capabilities.
\n\tEfficiency Gains Are Real, But Not Cost Cuts: AI is helping firms do more with the same resources, rather than reducing headcount.
\n\tHuman Connection Remains Irreplaceable: For complex family issues and large-scale advisory mandates, clients still want to speak to a person.
\n\tThe Investment Case for AI Companies Demands Caution: A wave of mega-IPOs could mark the peak of AI sector outperformance, even as the technology itself continues to develop.
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Helpful, But Not Transformative, Yet<\/p>\n
Overdijk was refreshingly candid about where AI sits in his firm’s operations today. While acknowledging that every firm now uses the technology to some degree, he was careful to distinguish between incremental utility and genuine transformation.<\/p>\n
“Have we been using quant models in investment research? Yes, we have for years already. That’s not actually new,” he said. “Does AI help? Yes, it helps. You can find things much quicker, you can find answers much quicker, but it hasn’t really changed yet the way we do our business.”<\/p>\n
The distinction matters. For firms like Leo Wealth, which advises complex family clients across multiple jurisdictions, the advisory process involves layers of judgement, relationship management, and structural thinking that remain beyond the reach of current AI capabilities. The technology can accelerate data gathering, surface patterns across large datasets, and reduce the time required for routine analysis, but it does not make the final call.<\/p>\n
Overdijk pointed to Hong Kong’s regulatory framework as a reinforcing factor. The SFC’s updated guidelines include a clear stipulation that irrespective of how AI tools are used in the advisory process, the responsibility for the investment recommendation rests entirely with the adviser.<\/p>\n
“No matter how you use AI, you are responsible for your investment call,” he noted. “So never blame it on AI.”<\/p>\n
The Integration Opportunity<\/p>\n
Where Overdijk sees the most significant near-term potential is not in the deployment of new AI-powered products, but in the integration of existing systems. Like many independent wealth managers, Leo Wealth operates across a patchwork of external platforms, from portfolio analytics and independent research providers to quantitative equity models and market data terminals.<\/p>\n
“We still use a lot of external systems, whether it’s for data, whether it’s for our external independent research, whether it’s our quant equity research model, whether it’s our client portfolios,” he explained. “These are all separate systems. If we can bring that together in house, we’re not there yet, but we’re definitely looking into that. That would really take things to the next level.”<\/p>\n
This is a challenge that resonates across the independent wealth management sector. The proliferation of specialist tools and data sources has created operational complexity that, paradoxically, AI itself may be best placed to resolve. The ability to unify disparate data streams into a single, coherent advisory platform would represent a meaningful step change in how firms deliver advice, even if the underlying investment process remains human-led.<\/p>\n
Efficiency, Not Replacement<\/p>\n
When the panel’s chair pushed the discussion towards the bottom line, asking whether AI is actually making firms more profitable, Overdijk offered a nuanced response. The technology is not, in his view, primarily a cost-reduction tool.<\/p>\n
“It’s not necessarily reducing cost, but it’s making it more efficient,” he said. “The last few years we’ve been growing a lot and we’re still growing very fast. So for us it’s how we can optimise our human advisers to actually do the important part.”<\/p>\n
That important part, he argued, is the element of the advisory relationship that AI cannot replicate: the human connection. Whether it is navigating the complexities of a multi-generational family structure, managing sensitive succession dynamics, or simply providing the reassurance that comes from speaking to a trusted adviser, these are functions that technology can support but not replace.<\/p>\n
“AI is not going to replace the human connection,” Overdijk said. “AI is not going to replace the investment advisory for large complex family issues and problems.”<\/p>\n
He drew an analogy to the evolution of execution platforms, noting that firms like Interactive Brokers made investing dramatically more efficient decades ago, yet clients continue to maintain relationships with private banks. The parallel is instructive: efficiency and cost savings alone do not determine where clients place their trust and their assets.<\/p>\n
“What you want is to make your whole process and the delivery to your clients faster, more productive,” he said.<\/p>\n
Not a Fad, But Beware the Hype Cycle<\/p>\n
As the discussion turned to whether AI represents a lasting structural shift or a passing wave, Overdijk was emphatic on the first point and cautious on the second.<\/p>\n
“No, AI and even the Metaverse is not going to disappear,” he said, citing the engagement of younger generations with immersive technologies. “It might take a bit longer, maybe a bit longer than Meta thought it would take, but it’s just part of the evolution.”<\/p>\n
The comparison to the early adoption of email in the 1990s was, in his view, apt. Firms that failed to integrate email into their workflows lost ground not because the technology was revolutionary in itself, but because it became a baseline expectation. AI, he argued, is following the same trajectory.<\/p>\n
“It’s not about being ahead of the competition,” Overdijk said. “If you don’t do it, you’re going to lose out. Everyone’s doing it now. Everyone needs to do it.”<\/p>\n
However, he drew a sharp distinction between the staying power of AI as a technology and the investment case for AI-related companies. For clients looking at the sector through a portfolio lens, he counselled caution.<\/p>\n
“The big winners from an investment perspective for the last few years, will they keep winning? That’s a big question,” he said. “Whenever there is a big trend, like all the internet companies in 1999 and 2000, all the big commodity companies in 2011, if indeed OpenAI and Anthropic and SpaceX all come to the market this year with mega-IPOs, it’s not going to be the end of AI, but it might be the end of the outperformance of AI companies for a while.”<\/p>\n
From Tool to Table Stakes<\/p>\n
Overdijk’s perspective reflects a pragmatism that is increasingly characteristic of the independent wealth management community in Hong Kong. The firms that are navigating the AI transition most effectively are not those chasing the latest model release or building bespoke platforms from scratch. They are the ones focused on unglamorous but high-impact integration work, optimising existing resources, and maintaining the human advisory relationships that remain their core competitive advantage.<\/p>\n
The technology will continue to evolve. The tools will become more powerful, the integrations more seamless, and the efficiencies more pronounced. But as Overdijk made clear, for firms advising complex families on multi-generational wealth, the fundamentals have not changed: judgement, trust, and human connection remain the foundations on which lasting advisory relationships are built. AI is a powerful enabler, but it is not, and may never be, a substitute.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Artificial intelligence may be the defining technology story of 2026, but for wealth management firms in the business…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":696905,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[219760,219764,219772,219768,219759,219763,219771,219767,219761,219765,219773,219769,219758,219762,219770,219766,64,63,99,18608,186,184,185,1542],"class_list":["post-696904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-asia-private-banking","tag-asia-private-banking-news","tag-asia-private-banking-online-training","tag-asia-private-banking-training","tag-asia-wealth-management","tag-asia-wealth-management-news","tag-asia-wealth-management-online-training","tag-asia-wealth-management-training","tag-asian-private-banking","tag-asian-private-banking-news","tag-asian-private-banking-online-training","tag-asian-private-banking-training","tag-asian-wealth-management","tag-asian-wealth-management-news","tag-asian-wealth-management-online-training","tag-asian-wealth-management-training","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-e-learning","tag-finance","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance","tag-training"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=696904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696904\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/696905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=696904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=696904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=696904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}