WEALTH IQ

WEALTH IQ

WEALTH IQ launched in 2015 under CEO Mary McDougall, a former strategy consultant who identified a structural blind spot in wealth management: no one was systematically measuring how well private banks and family offices executed their digital strategies. The firm was purpose-built to solve that, creating a proprietary benchmarking database that evaluates firms across hundreds of operational and technology dimensions. Its flagship WealthTech Index scores institutions on the performance of their client-facing portals, mobile applications, and internal advisor tools, producing a quantitative ranking that has been cited by senior executives at UBS and Credit Suisse as a primary reference point for digital investment decisions (per the firm, 2023). The core offering is an annual subscription-based benchmarking service, supplemented by strategic advisory mandates. WEALTH IQ maps coverage across European and Asian wealth hubs, with confirmed engagements spanning Switzerland, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and Hong Kong. The company evaluates asset managers on specific capabilities including automated portfolio rebalancing, client lifecycle management, and AI-driven suitability checks. A key differentiator is its refusal to accept sponsorship or consulting fees from the technology vendors it evaluates, which the firm states preserves its independence when comparing platforms from providers such as Avaloq, Temenos, and Addepar. WEALTH IQ operates as a lean, analyst-heavy outfit from its London base, with a team structured around research, data science, and advisory. McDougall has maintained a low external profile while the firm's reports circulate inside industry circles. In September 2023, the firm published its eighth annual WealthTech Benchmarking Report, expanding coverage to include digital asset custody capabilities for the first time, reflecting end-client demand across surveyed institutions (per the firm's official communications). The report remains one of the few independently produced, non-vendor-funded assessments of wealth management technology globally. Structurally, WEALTH IQ sits outside the traditional consulting and market-research ecosystem. It does not sell lead-generation services, does not take placement fees from software vendors, and does not run paid industry awards. That firewall is its structural differentiator — a research-only mandate that lets it publish negative findings about client technology stacks without commercial penalty. The governance model is simple: a single founder-CEO with no disclosed outside investors, keeping the firm's incentive structure aligned with the accuracy of its data rather than the volume of its consulting billings.