Last year, Citigroup made headlines after an audit in its wealth management unit, which has $515 billion in managed assets, exposed multiple problems, including a tedious client onboarding process and sloppy data handling. According to the report, Citi falls behind its key competitors, faces a “deterioration” of client trust, and loses money.
“Funding surface-level initiatives without fixing foundational problems has negatively impacted the experience of Citi’s clients and advisors”, — the report said.
If this case can teach us anything, it’s that even the biggest players can fall behind due to operational mess. And if you’re reading this, there’s a good chance you’re facing similar issues: client onboarding takes ages, investor data is scattered across spreadsheets, and compliance steps are being tracked manually.
Sounds painfully familiar? Scaling up often catches operational leaders at wealth management firms unprepared, causing chaos and erasing the joy of a long-awaited success. However, this issue is universal, and most importantly, it is solvable.
Operational Complexity Is Inevitable — Unless You Plan for Scale
Processes that worked well with five clients can buckle when fifty more arrive. What feels like minor complexity at first soon becomes a web of duplicate data, broken workflows, and mounting errors.
Leadership grows frustrated, often seeing this breakdown as managerial failure or an issue of market demand. But, as we’ve seen with Citi, many firms hit the same wall: growing to a certain scale, only to be dragged down by broken processes and legacy systems.
Market research also echoes these common industry issues.
Source: PwC’s Wealth Management Insights 2025
Growth magnifies inefficiencies. If expansion triggers chaos, it’s not a sign to slow down — it’s a signal that infrastructure wasn’t built for scaling. It’s the moment when firms can choose to rewire their operations for sustainable growth.
So how do you shift from reactive firefighting to a proactive, scalable way of working?
Three Operational Priorities for Scalable Growth in Wealth Management
Here are three areas wealth management firms should focus on to simplify operations and build an ecosystem ready for growth.
Custom Workflow Automation
CRMs often sit at the heart of operations, but many firms find them either too generic or too rigid to reflect their real-world processes. When workflows are mismatched, inefficiencies multiply.
Operational issues often start with onboarding — the most visible bottleneck of the process. But this is only the beginning. Once a client is in, the real strain falls on advisor workflows. Everyday tasks like portfolio rebalancing, quarterly reporting, or tracking regulatory changes still involve juggling multiple spreadsheets, manually updating records, or moving between disconnected platforms.
This eats up valuable advisor time that could otherwise be spent on client relationships or strategic growth. And the real opportunity for modernization lies in making advisor workflows seamless — automating recurring tasks, ensuring data flows across systems, and giving advisors a single source of truth when engaging with clients.
That’s why firms looking to replace or polish their CRMs should consider the ones that can cater to their advisors’ workflows. It’s good to start with a tool that can:
- Match your actual operational sequence
- Has built-in task assignment and reminders
- Offers templates for investor docs, integrated directly into workflows
- Has compliance milestones embedded into every client journey
- Covers end-to-end client journey tracking
Choosing a CRM for wealth management firms often depends on the company’s size and processes. For example, industry giants like Morgan Stanley or Merrill Lynch use established software brands that have specific wealth management layers, like Salesforce Wealth Management Edition.
A mastodon of CRMs, Salesforce offers in-depth functionality that allows for managing complex portfolios, has superb compliance tracking, and consolidated dashboards. It is also a go-to for firms that prioritize client acquisition and work with a high volume of investors. But for smaller-to-midsized firms, buying Salesforce wouldn’t make much sense — it is an expensive, complex software that requires substantial implementation resources and has a steep learning curve.
Firms who work on a smaller scale can start with a CRM that is easy to use, cost-efficient, and has industry-specific tools. And sometimes — it’s not what market-ready solutions can offer. Why might you need more customization than market-ready solutions can offer?
- Firstly, to scale without friction. A perfect CRM has to match your operations and workflows.
- Secondly, to cater to the unique flow of new clients. Wealth management firms are moving away from rigid wealth segmenting to a more nuanced, persona-based client portrayal. And this is exactly where a CRM can also play a critical role.
The answer to this dilemma? Look for a market-ready solution that can be adjusted to your needs or opt for a custom CRM. While it can be pricey, this way you can have it all — software that mimics your operations, offers comprehensive compliance features, and is designed to scale.
At Sombra, we help our clients build custom solutions that match exactly how your operations work. Learn more about our services for wealth & asset management firms.
System Integration with API-First Infrastructure
For many firms, operational complexity comes from fragmentation. A typical scenario: KYC handled separately, investor data in one folder, compliance tracked in Excel, and onboarding buried in email threads. Each process works in isolation, but together they create bottlenecks.
Scaling exposes this even more. The remedy is integration — building an ecosystem where systems talk to each other. With API-first infrastructure:
- Completing KYC can automatically trigger onboarding workflows
- Investor profiles sync across CRM, compliance, and reporting systems
- Teams work from a single source of truth
The payoff goes beyond efficiency. Integrated systems free advisors to focus on clients instead of chasing missing data. Investors move through onboarding faster. Compliance risk decreases because fewer steps fall through the cracks.
And equally important — integration gives leaders context. When information lives in silos, it’s nearly impossible to get a full picture of the client: investment background, portfolio composition, and long-term goals. A connected system brings that view onto one dashboard, enabling better, data-driven decisions.
Operational Intelligence for Continuous Improvement
Struggling with messy data buried in spreadsheets and team chats? You’re not alone — 45% of wealth management firms feel they lack a trusted data layer in their company, says a report by Ernst & Young.
When data lives in silos, spreadsheets, and vendor systems, it’s impossible to see the bigger picture and make well-informed decisions. It’s especially critical in the wealth management industry, that so heavily relies on data. Without visibility and operational intelligence, you can’t improve your processes, simply because you don’t know where to start.
Operational intelligence solves this by turning processes into measurable workflows. That starts with mapping:
- Identify each step of the client journey, from KYC to compliance to account setup
- Track how long each step takes, where delays happen, and who owns them
- Differentiate between manual tasks and those that could be automated
- Measure advisor workloads to spot capacity gaps
- Monitor SLA adherence across compliance and vendor processes
When this information feeds into dashboards, firms move from guessing to knowing. Bottlenecks surface in real time. Teams see where they’re consistently falling behind. Leaders can prioritize automation where it has the highest payoff.
This kind of intelligence is what turns operational discipline into a competitive edge. It accelerates decision-making and sets the stage for continuous, data-driven improvement.
Case Study: How We Helped a Global Wealth Management Firm Turn Complexity into Clarity
One of our long-standing clients — a global financial services firm serving thousands of advisors — was entering a new phase of growth. Advisor adoption was on the rise. Their offerings were expanding. Their reputation was strong. But behind this momentum, their internal systems were struggling to keep up.
That’s where Sombra stepped in.
Perhaps most importantly, advisors are no longer spending their days wrestling with fragmented systems. They’re back to doing what they do best — building relationships, delivering advice, and growing client wealth.
Final Step: Scaling Starts with Simplifying
When firms stall, it’s rarely the market holding them back. More often, it’s internal: fragmented workflows, manual processes, and outdated systems.
The lesson? Adding tools won’t solve the problem unless you’re building toward an integrated, scalable architecture. Firms that don’t make this shift risk burning out their teams, frustrating clients, and losing momentum.
Instead of patching weak spots, rebuild your process architecture for scale. The payoff is operations that run smoothly — and growth that feels sustainable.
Don’t let your operational challenges hold you back.
Talk to Sombra. We’ll help you modernize, automate, and align your systems so your team can move faster, think bigger, and stay ahead
Ready to build for scale? Let’s talk.
