Matt Ober is a general partner at Social Leverage. Matt was most recently the chief data scientist at Third Point, where he built the data analytics and technology platform used to enhance the firm’s investment capabilities in equity, structured credit, venture capital and cryptocurrency.

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Wealth management is at an inflection point: new technology, policy shifts, and capital flows are redrawing the lines of who gets access — and how. Here are a few trends I’m noticing, from the role of advisors to the surge of retail in private markets and new accredited investor rules.

Will financial advisors disappear?

Are advisors part of the future? Does the younger generation want to manage themselves?

I have had a lot of conversations lately where people debate whether financial advisors will be part of the future or if the younger generation wants to just manage their own money.

I am a big believer that tools are getting better, access to education and alternatives, and trading is only going to get easier. I mean we are going to tokenize everything soon.

All that being said, I don’t see a world where financial advisors disappear. Will they have to embrace AI and technology? Absolutely. Will they become more efficient, have more information at their fingertips, and be able to manage 10x more money because of the technology revolution we are seeing happen all around us? I think so.

I also think that as more and more people grow their wealth, they have questions, they need services, they need help thinking through the tax strategies, the trusts, estates, and understand how to set up their children for success. Money management is a relationship, it’s trust, it's a business where people want to talk to someone and have a deep conversation about what their goals are.

Robinhood will be further and further in wealth management. Robinhood will make roboadvising or AI-driven investing sexy again. But they will also end up offering financial advisor introductions or access to advisors as part of the TradePMR acquisition.

Wealth management will change for the better. But the human relationship aspect of wealth management isn’t going anywhere. Finding the right wealth manager is still tricky, but new firms are starting every day to address the gaps. Social Leverage has spent a lot of time in and around wealth management for the last decade, investing in the technology, the advisors and using the products. We continue to be excited about where the wealth industry is headed and the opportunities.

Cash flowing into private investments

The floodgates of retail money are coming with lots of potential winners. After reading the latest from Josh Brown, it has me thinking more about the opportunities within private equity.

Money is flowing into private investments, whether it’s from KKR or the Carlyle Group, or it’s coming from Blackstone and Goldman Sachs. These firms are front and center offering funds that are getting to the masses, and there are lots of platforms making this easier and easier for wealth managers, whether they use iCapital or Opto.

“It’s been reported that retail-focused private equity funds have seen an increase in subscriptions (allocations) of 3X over the course of 2023 and 2024. Funds like KKR’s DPLF (Direct Private Lending Fund) and Carlyle’s Global Credit Income Fund saw subscription growth triple year-over-year. That’s retail money coming in, much of which is being directed by the financial advice community.”

With President Trump’s recent executive order paving the way for 401(k) retirement plans to include private equity and other alternative investments, the pension system could see growing capital flows into private markets over the coming years. Do we need more retail and unsophisticated money in alternative investments and PE? Maybe not, but the fees that will be generated by these large fund managers will be massive.

Accredited investor shakeup

The U.S. House passed the Fair Investment Opportunities for Professional Experts Act in a 397-12 vote, and the bill is now under consideration by the Senate.

An accredited investor is someone who earns at least $200,000 annually or has a net worth of more than $1 million. The bill is designed to make access to investments for accredited investors more accessible.

The details of the bill include a few tasks to be implemented:

Establish an accredited investor exam within 24 months of enactment.
Include FINRA’s Securities Industry Essentials exam as one of the qualifying credentials.
Adjust the income/net worth threshold for inflation every five years.

Overall, this is going to open the floodgates to more retail investors getting access to private investments. PE, VC, private funds — anything that falls into the accredited investor bucket — will now have a direct path to retail investors who only need to pass a test. Assuming this test is easily accessible, the pass rate is likely to be high, especially in this AI-driven world.

Imagine if the exam is offered as an easy multiple-choice inside your Robinhood account and then you pass — and boom, private investments and alternatives are at your fingertips. Talk about the next leg of asset gathering and growth.

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The restrictions on accredited investors and, arguably, qualified purchasers don’t make much sense. Having some sort of exam that shows financial competency is a no-brainer. That said, opening the floodgates to anyone and everyone investing in alternatives might not be the right move either. Should the exams be as hard as a CFA or CAIA? Probably not.

Either way, it’s good for the alternative investment platforms and the financial institutions that make access easier. It’s also good for alternative investment managers looking for new investors.