Bloomberg
Greg Fleming, head of Rockefeller Capital Management, highlights how digital tools and the coming wealth transfer are reshaping wealth management
- Greg Fleming, the former president of Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch, took over Rockefeller Capital Management in March 2018, when the company had $18 billion in assets. He said on Tuesday that by year-end, the company should have around $35 billion. By 2023, he wants to hit $100 billion.
- Fleming highlighted two factors reshaping wealth management: digital tools and the coming wealth transfer from Baby Boomers to younger generations.
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Wall Street veteran Greg Fleming announced big ambitions when he took over as CEO of Rockefeller Capital Management last year.
The former president of Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch said he wanted to transform the multifamily office into a behemoth of a financial services firm, with capabilities in investment banking and other areas. When he joined in March 2018, the firm had $18 billion in assets, and he said he wanted to get to $100 billion by 2023.
On Tuesday, Fleming said he's making progress toward that goal. By year end, he said he expects the firm to hit about $35 billion, a milestone that means the firm has added about $1 billion per month since he took over.
"We're doing well," he said at Bloomberg Invest, a conference in New York.
Part of Rockefeller's growth will come through acquisitions, the first of which the company made in October with the addition of Greer Anderson Capital, a private investment management firm with $200 million in assets.
Fleming also highlighted two areas reshaping wealth management.
The first is digital. The explosion of tech tools has allowed upstart firms like Rockefeller to challenge legacy companies, because smaller players can piece together tools rather than building everything internally.
"Digital's key," Fleming said.
That extends from infrastructure to the customer experience. As millennials and Generation Z becomes an increasingly important part of advisers' client base, they're looking for a different experience than a quarterly sit-down meeting about their finances.
"They want to be able to interface with their wealth and their adviser in the same way they do a lot of other things," Fleming said.
The coming wealth transfer - $30 trillion that will move from Baby Boomers to their heirs over the next few decades in the US alone, according to Bank of America - should also change the wealth industry, he said. Because of longer life expectancy, women are set to be the face of that capital transfer.
Fleming said his "diversified group" of advisors, with teams led by both men and women, will help the firm be prepared for that transfer. About a third of US financial advisors are women, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
"This is an industry that should have a much higher component of its leaders be female over time," Fleming said.
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