The next frontier in personal wealth management

Most people don’t stop to think about it, but fintech is already woven into their daily routines. Every time you split a dinner bill with a friend through Venmo in the U.S. or Bit and PayBox in Israel, you’re using fintech. When you check out online with PayPal or Google/Apple Pay, that’s fintech too. If you’re managing household expenses with RiseUp in Israel or U.S. tools like Mint or YNAB, you’re experiencing how technology has simplified short-term money management.

These services transformed how we handle money in the moment — instant payments, credit without stepping into a branch and sleek budgeting apps. This was the first, “old” wave of fintech: a revolution in convenience. But convenience only goes so far.

Most of these innovations focused on here-and-now tasks — payments, loans and monthly spending — not on the deeper question of how people build and protect wealth over decades.

Personal wealth management — the real foundation of long-term financial security — stayed opaque and fragmented. Pensions, retirement accounts and investment portfolios remained complex, paper-heavy and often mediated by parties whose incentives weren’t fully aligned with the individual.

Traditional fintech largely skipped this space. It was too complex, too regulated and not as “sexy” as payments or budgeting apps.

Why this matters now

The urgency to address this gap has grown. After years of relative stability, households now face a mix of challenges — rate cycles and inflation bursts; much higher mortality rates and longevity pressures; unpredictable savings patterns due to career shifts and gig work; geopolitical tensions that ripple through supply chains, energy prices and asset markets.

These forces can reshape long-term outcomes dramatically. Longevity means retirement assets must last longer. Geopolitical shocks can turn set-and-forget decisions into costly mistakes.

In this environment, relying on static statements or sporadic advice isn’t enough. People need tools that continuously read the landscape and adapt. This is where the new wave of fintech arrives: AI-driven personal wealth management.

To see how this plays out, let’s look at pensions, which are often the single largest component of household wealth in many countries.

In Israel, pensions are particularly significant — but notoriously confusing. Many people don’t know: their total fees, how their fund performs versus alternatives or how small decisions today can compound into life-changing sums at retirement.

Historically, pensions were left in the shadows because they were too complex for traditional fintech to tackle. AI is changing that.

Modern platforms can automatically aggregate data across funds, benchmark performance, quantify the drag of fees, run scenario analyses for different market paths or contribution choices and convert it all into clear, objective personalized recommendations.

What once required a lengthy in-person meeting, or was ignored altogether, can now be done in minutes, without paperwork or jargon.

This isn’t just innovation. It’s democratization — putting pension intelligence directly into people’s hands.

The same AI-driven principles apply far beyond pensions. They can transform investment management, insurance optimization and holistic wealth planning.

Instead of relying on biased advice or guesswork, individuals can steer their financial future with the same simplicity they enjoy when sending a payment or checking a balance — but now with continuous monitoring, proactive alerts and adaptive decisions aligned with their long-term goals and risk tolerance.

From convenience to control: The future of fintech

The old fintech revolution gave us convenience. The new fintech revolution gives us control.

Payments and loans were just the opening act. The next chapter is about building wealth, not just moving money. It’s about making sure technology works not only for today’s transactions, but for the decades-long journey of financial security.

In short, the future of fintech isn’t about how quickly we can pay — it’s about how wisely we can save, invest and grow.

In a world of economic shifts and geopolitical uncertainty, AI makes that future not just possible, but practical.