Money management has emerged as a positive sector in the pandemic economy. After a coronavirus-inspired tanking of capital markets came a resurgence that left patient investor-clients wealthier than before. And the firms that managed those investments fared well, too.“Revenues for investment management firms remained largely intact, but the people, the operations and the technology used by investment managers were impacted,” according to a Deloitte report in December on the sector.
Interviews with Valley-region money managers on the following pages confirm what the report found, namely that during the pandemic “investment managers of all kinds reassured investors that their portfolios were being managed continuously in the face of adversity.” The money managers were taken from the Business Journal’s annual list, also in this report.Coming out of the pandemic, both the interviews and the Deloitte report indicate that money management firms plan changes in technology and employment. The report found that 82 percent of U.S. money management firms plan to implement flexible schedules in the future, and 73 percent plan on reduced hours.
On the technology front, the top priorities for firms are cybersecurity and data privacy. “Not surprisingly, this indicates that investment management firms are spending in part to support remote and distributed working arrangements brought about by the pandemic,” the report concluded.
– Joel Russell
Sea Change for Finance
