What Do Advisors Want in 2025?

The battle for investors and their wallets on the wealth management frontlines is on. Advisors are facing several headwinds.

The inexorable progression of the baby boomer generation—the industry’s growth engine for the past four decades—into retirement spells slower new inflows and accelerating outflows out of retirement nest-eggs. Meanwhile, the newly minted investors in the millennial and Gen Z cohorts are opting to enter the investing arena through self-directed brokerage platforms.

ISS Market Intelligence deployed a number of surveys to help identify and quantify exactly what advisors are doing, and what they are planning to do. The surveys, each completed by more than 800 advisors, asked about their preferred investment vehicles, portfolio construction strategies, alternatives and the use of personalization tools, such as direct indexing or SMA/UMA programs.

Ignites hosted “What Do Advisors Want In 2025?” sponsored by ISS Market Intelligence. During this webcast, panelists discussed what the findings of these surveys tell us about how asset managers can support advisors in growing their businesses. Panelists offered their perspective on the main themes of asset and wealth management business in 2025 and how to best leverage them to drive growth. Ben Doob, Head of ISS Market Intelligence, served as a key panelist in driving this webcast discussion forward.