The Challenge Every Asset Owner Needs to Address
The portfolio data chaos problem is a challenge that too many asset owners face. Too many asset owners spend too much time managing data in spreadsheets rather than making investment decisions. Our industry is using a program created in 1985 in a technology universe that is accelerating at light speed. We’re implementing AI everywhere while still…
Read MoreA Historic Shift in Global Equity Markets: Q3 2025 Capital Market Assumptions
As we close out the third quarter of 2025, FinMason’s latest Capital Market Assumptions reveal a watershed moment in global equity markets—one that should fundamentally reshape how investors think about portfolio construction and geographic diversification. A Ten-Year First: North American Equities Below 2% For the first time since we began running our long-term linear regression…
Read MoreThe Success of Your AI Initiative Depends on Clean Data
Financial services have embraced AI. Every week, more news emerges about the implementation of LLMs, machine learning algorithms that select stocks, natural language processing that generates investment commentary, and predictive analytics that forecast market movements. It’s exciting stuff, and the promises are genuinely transformative. We often learn that for many firms, AI implementation is still…
Read MoreSpeed Matters: How Modern APIs Are Transforming Financial Analytics
The financial services industry needs speed. We can execute trades in microseconds, but it still takes weeks to implement basic portfolio analytics. We can move billions of dollars instantly across continents, yet struggle to generate a simple risk report without waiting for overnight batch processes. This contradiction is a competitive liability. The Legacy Trap Many…
Read MoreReady for 2026? Plan Your Digital & Analytics Initiatives
As we look ahead to 2026, investing in digital and analytics capabilities strategically, efficiently, and with genuine impact is crucial. Success isn’t solely dependent on a large technology budget; it is more important to think modularly about your analytics infrastructure, focusing resources on what truly differentiates your firm, while partnering strategically for everything else. The…
Read MoreHow an Asset Manager Rebuilt Their Analytics Infrastructure with Modularity
An Asset Management firm had a good problem: they were growing rapidly. Over the course of three years, their assets under management grew from $30 billion to $45 billion, driven by strong performance and a growing reputation among institutional clients. But success was creating considerable strain. Their Chief Operating Officer found herself in a difficult…
Read MoreThe Advisory Gap: Why Insurance and Annuity Firms Are Losing the Tech Arms Race
A phone call came at 8:30 on a Monday morning. The head of distribution at a major annuity provider was fielding complaints from their top-producing advisors, again. The issue wasn’t product performance or commission structures. It was far more fundamental: the advisors couldn’t efficiently demonstrate value to their clients. “We’ve got brilliant products,” he told…
Read MoreHow an Asset Manager Slashed Analytics Workflow Time by 80%
A client story about the hidden costs of manual analytics and the ROI of modern technology. Sarah had been with a global Asset Management firm for eight years, working her way up from junior analyst to head of portfolio operations. She knew every spreadsheet in the department, every data source, and every workaround that kept…
Read MoreThree Digital Best Practices for Financial Services
We’ve been watching and implementing digital transformation efforts across asset management for years, and we are starting to see clear patterns emerge between the firms that succeed and those that struggle. The difference isn’t budget size or technical sophistication and approach. The firms getting digital right are doing three things differently: First, they’re starting with…
Read MoreWhy Asset & Wealth Managers Need to Rethink Their Approach to Innovation
We’re seeing a contradiction in financial services. Asset and wealth management firms are under pressure to innovate rapidly while grappling with the complexities of retiring legacy systems and modernizing their capabilities. The result? A technology paradox that’s creating both extraordinary opportunities and existential challenges. The Reality Check Let’s start with some uncomfortable truths. The average…
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