These days, digital technology is integral to almost every aspect of daily life, from communication to booking travel and conducting business. For UHNWIs, however, everyday life often involves decisions and needs that mass-market technologies simply cannot address. From managing large, complex financial portfolios to curating exclusive lifestyle experiences, UHNWIs require tailored solutions that offer enhanced personalisation, heightened security, and deep insights. Fortunately, a range of specialised digital solutions exists to meet these unique demands.
Below, we explore five types of these tools along with a few specific examples of each one to provide a taste of the possibilities.
01 Luxury lifestyle platforms
Managing the lifestyles of UHNWIs involves much more than just making reservations or purchasing high-end products; it’s about accessing exclusive experiences and services that are often out of reach for the general public. Unlike mass-market platforms that cater to broad audiences, luxury lifestyle platforms for UHNWIs provide bespoke services tailored to their distinct needs—such as booking or purchasing a private island.
Examples of luxury lifestyle platforms include:
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- Quintessentially, a provider of white-glove concierge services to its members.
- Myria, which calls itself “a private marketplace that offers the goods, services, and experiences you can’t Google.”
- Net-a-Porter and Mr Porter, which offer curated luxury goods.
02 Platforms for accessing exclusive assets and investment opportunities
UHNWIs often seek investment opportunities and assets that are not accessible to the general public, such as rare art, private equity, and luxury real estate. Online platforms that help UHNWIs source such opportunities include:
- Billionaire Network, a listing service for big-ticket properties, collectibles, and more.
- Artnet and Artsy, which specialise in the buying and selling of fine art.
- iCapital, which connects UHNWIs and their teams with alternative investment opportunities.
- MansionGlobal, a part of the Barron’s Group media business that provides luxury property listings.
03 Philanthropic and impact investment decision support
For many UHNWIs, philanthropy and impact investing are crucial aspects of their legacy and values. Unlike standard investment platforms, which focus primarily on financial returns, these tools help UHNWIs align their wealth with their personal values, providing insights and tools to maximise the impact of their philanthropic efforts and sustainable investments.
- S&P Global Sustainable1 is one example of a digital service providing investors with environmental, social, and governance (ESG) scoring data on publicly traded companies.
- ImpactAssets is a platform that helps UHNWIs invest in initiatives that generate both financial returns and social or environmental impact.
04 Secure digital communications
For UHNWIs, privacy is paramount, particularly when it comes to communication. Given the highly technical nature of the market for secure communication tools – in which discretion is prized – judging the popularity of any one such solution among UHNWIs is challenging.
It is fair to say, however, that UHNWIs avoid using free-to-use, mass-market digital communications tools when communicating sensitive information. While many free-to-use solutions have (and are often required by law to have) advanced security features, they often raise doubts as to whether user data is being shared in one way or another to finance the providers’ operations.
A notable example of a secure digital communications provider that appears to operate entirely on licensing fees is Swiss-based Threema, whose chat application is purported to be the only one allowed for communication among members of the Swiss Army. While many providers of such tools have “freemium” pricing models (where basic versions of applications are free to use) or claim to be financed entirely by donations and grants, all Threema users must pay a licensing fee.
05 Reporting and monitoring platforms for complex investment portfolios
Obviously, the size of their investment portfolios distinguish UHNWIs from lower-net-worth individuals. A less obvious – bust just as important – distinguishing factor is the greater degree of diversification in UHNWIs’ investment portfolios.
Both UHNWIs and smaller investors are likely to hold equities, bonds, cash, and real estate. But UHNWIs typically hold more of each of these assets as well as a wide variety of other ones such as one-of-a-kind collectibles and private equity. Getting a unified view of all their holdings and tracking the current value of each one often present significant challenges to UHNWIs.
One solution to these challenges is for UHNWIs or their teams to spend hours or even days every month with spreadsheets to manually catalogue valuable items and analyse data from the various institutions where bankable assets are held.
A better solution is to rely on a digital wealth platform to automatically aggregate this financial data through ultra-secure connections and visualise it in easy-to-understand dashboards.
The example of such a tool we know best is ours: the Altoo Wealth Platform. Among the most advanced solutions of its type, the platform:
- Makes it easy to keep track of properties, collectibles, and virtually any other valuable item in a UHNWI’s portfolio. Wealth owners can view their holdings grouped by asset class and drill down into each asset for detailed performance information.
- Offers 100% Swiss-hosted file storage and digital messaging capabilities with security on par with the most advanced such solutions on the market. Clients need not rely on third parties for such services when handling their financial lives and can streamline communications and workflows involving particular holdings. All appropriate stakeholders can be securely looped into conversations and have access to relevant documentation (such as insurance policies or mortgage contracts) directly within the platform.
Takeaway
All of the types of digital solutions outlined above share a common purpose of improving UHNWIs’ lives, whether it be by helping them enjoy unique experiences, source and evaluate opportunities to grow their wealth and legacies, maintain digital security, or stay on track towards achieving their financial goals. We are confident that the Altoo Wealth Platform lives up to this purpose by taking the headaches out of monitoring every aspect of a UHNWI’s total wealth. To learn more, please get in touch!
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