Oct 24, 2025 - Last Updated: Oct 27, 2025
To grow in today’s market, advisors can no longer rely on a one-size-fits-all service model. Winning the next generation of clients — or holding on to your current ones — requires a smarter client segmentation strategy that delivers both personalization (for them) and efficiency (for you).
Offering your clients personalized advice that includes their preferences creates a true partnership: Your clients receive the tailored strategies they need for their future, and your business can potentially attract more net new flows and earn more money.
The great wealth transfer: Big threat or big opportunity?
For decades, the advisory industry has been built on a foundation of stable, long-term relationships with clients. But things are changing. The Great Wealth Transfer is expected to be the largest intergenerational wealth transfer in history. It’s not a far-off future event; it’s actually happening right now.
Recent research from Capgemini highlights the magnitude of this challenge: An astonishing 81% of next-generation heirs intend to leave their parents’ wealth management firms.* The main reasons they provide for this decision are a lack of advanced digital tools and an outdated selection of products and services.
And this expectation isn’t limited to heirs of the wealthy. The much larger mass-affluent market — including the High Earners Not Rich Yets (HENRYs) — also seek a modern, real-time financial experience. They want intuitive decision-making tools and the ability to transact securely and seamlessly. This makes client segmentation no longer just a “nice-to-have” growth strategy, but an essential one for your firm.
All the tools you need to design an efficient client segmentation strategy are integrated into the Ascend Workstation. This unified UI serves as your command center, enabling you to create cohorts based on various criteria — such as AUM, life stage, and specific service needs — allowing you to manage your entire book of business from a single screen.
Ascend Investor: Configurable end investor tools that save time
At Apex, we understand the administrative pain points of traditional advisory tools. That’s why we’ve developed a suite of efficiency-enhancers for advisors directly within our Ascend Investor platform — an interconnected and robust ecosystem where all tools function seamlessly together.
The flexibility to combine digital and human approaches. You can provide a fully automated robo-advisor experience for one client segment, a self-directed model for another, and a high-touch, advisor-led approach for your most valued clients. Segment your clients appropriately and give them the right level of human advice when they need it. This is how you move beyond the limitations of legacy technology that was designed to provide white-glove treatment for the few and nothing for the masses. It’s not about working harder; it’s about having a smart platform working for you.
An automated process for creating client segments. Clients begin by filling out pre-built Risk Tolerance Questionnaires (RTQs) that can be customized by each segment an advisor creates. Their responses can be algorithmically mapped to portfolios, including within our integrated Model Marketplace, which analyzes hundreds of professionally constructed model portfolios to recommend the most suitable ones. Automation doesn’t mean giving up control, though. For your high-net-worth clients, you can continue to offer personalized service by choosing to automate only your behind-the-scenes work.
Client portfolios are automatically kept on track. Once a client invests in a model, the Apex Rebalancer and Ascend Workstation take charge. These powerful tools automatically rebalance and track portfolios to ensure they continue to align with the selected model. These automations allow you to efficiently manage multiple clients, as it helps reduce the time spent on manual portfolio management.
Personalization at scale. Provide the advanced personalization that today’s clients expect. As an example, with a single click, you can apply an ESG/SRI filter to the Model Marketplace, giving investors options that feel hand-picked to align with their preferences.
This is what an advisor’s day could look like using Ascend Investor
Imagine a workday where, instead of stressing out trying to get a million things done for every client, you can smoothly and efficiently handle everything in the Advisor Workstation and focus on proactively building your business. A day where your time is spent on what truly matters: your clients.
For example, you log in in the morning and choose to concentrate on your “growth” segment — next generation clients who are in their prime years of wealth accumulation. With just a few clicks, you initiate a rebalance for the entire group, ensuring that all their portfolios are aligned with their long-term strategies.
Next, you add some new clients to segments you’re using to enhance your efficiency. Using Ascend Workstation tools, you add two to your white-glove group, who see a special VIP-branded version of your client portal. Then you add seven to your Augmented Advice™ group; you have an interesting new alternative investments article to share with this cohort later.
Your system flags that three of your “hands-off” clients in a general robo segment have sent a message through their mobile app with a quick question. You send back a personalized response to each one.
After lunch, you notice that some of your younger clients, who prioritize investments aligned with their values, have shown interest in moving their money into a variety of Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) securities. No problem. You activate the appropriate Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) filters in the Model Marketplace and zip off seven emails with new model portfolio recommendations.
Empowering advisors to streamline their day-to-day work can produce great results. Take our client, Facet, for example. By focusing on increased advisor efficiency, they have enabled a single advisor to successfully service up to 200 clients. This kind of scalability was unimaginable in a legacy workday full of inefficient manual tasks — and it’s the key to unlocking the potential for enhanced profitability.
The point is that in a single day you can more effectively manage the needs of numerous clients. You can provide personalized service to those who require it, and still find time for the small, human touches that foster lasting relationships.
By Connor Coughlin
Chief Customer Officer
Segment your book of business into a blueprint for growth
A powerful client segmentation strategy can do more than improve your daily efficiency; it can transform your client list into a strategic blueprint for the future of your firm. It’s time to use it.
Ready to see how an efficient client segmentation strategy can transform your practice? Let’s chat.
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