Bank of America connects banking and wealth management through Life Plan

Bank of America launched Life Plan, an end-to-end digital personal finance and financial wellness platform.

Why should we care?
Bank of America doesn’t want to plan your life, but it wants to help you navigate through the financial contours of every life stage. Life Plan marks an ongoing evolution of the merger of banking and wealth management, a technique often used by digital-first fintechs and challenger banks. It’s a strategy to allow the consumer to personalize their financial journey based on a customer’s goals and milestones. Through it, the bank can get a 360-degree overview of the customer’s financial picture based on life events, and consequently, offer them products that suit their needs. The digital platform is a nod to sensitivities of millennial and Gen Z consumers, and by getting them into BofA’s ecosystem early on, the bank can offer them new products as their financial needs become more complex. The Life Plan approach is employed by most robo-advisers -- e.g. Wealthfront, Betterment, and Personal Capital -- and the new offering also helps the bank stay competitive in that marketplace.