Published this month and launched at a series of events attended by industry leaders in both Jersey and Guernsey, the second annual Channel Islands Wealth Management Insights 2025 report highlights how the performance of the Channel Islands wealth management sector looks strong at first glance – but a deeper analysis finds a more nuanced picture.
PwC’s wealth management insights team was presented with the ‘Special Recognition Award’ by the Corporate Governance Institute at its annual awards dinner on Friday 17 October 2025 – recognising
PwC’s tech-powered market analysis enables real-time insights and enhanced decision-making.
Key findings of the report include:
- Real-term growth is slow: In absolute terms, fund levels are increasing strongly. But stripping out the uplift from inflation or rising asset prices reveals more modest growth in recent years. This underlines the need to look beyond core markets for new sources of value, differentiation and growth.
- Private markets are changing the playing field: Offering access to alternative investments can help wealth managers to stand out from the pack and strengthen client returns. In particular, Channel Islands wealth managers said that digital assets are likely to see the greatest growth within the alternatives market.
- Competing on cost: Cost bases across the market vary markedly, with many wealth managers operating at a breakeven point that is much lower than the industry average, enabling them to boost margins and attract customers that might otherwise fall through the net.
- Targeting tech investment: Clients expect tech-enhanced capabilities. The big question is how to harness new technology and meet client demands, while containing what could be significant investment costs.
In response to these challenges, the report makes a number of recommendations to help wealth managers in the islands to ‘seize the moment’, including:
- Diversifying portfolios: there are challenges and risks as wealth managers move into unfamiliar territory, but getting ahead of the pack in offering private markets investment is an opportunity to boost differentiation, performance and growth.
- Embracing innovation: harnessing tech-powered solutions such as tokenisation offers an easy, seamless and cost-effective way to invest in a range of asset classes.
- Taking clients on the journey: augmenting expertise with technology can help to develop a deeper understanding of client objectives, enabling wealth managers to develop personalised and high-performing solutions.
Commenting on the report PwC CI Director and Jersey Banking Leader, Ian Ross, said:
“Encouragingly, the prevailing mood among Channel Islands wealth managers appears to be one of greater confidence than last year, with confidence in prospects being strongest for the coming 12 months. Optimism begins to dip, however, as wealth managers look to 2030 and beyond – perhaps unsurprising at a time of heightened macroeconomic uncertainty and disruption.
But there could be as many opportunities as challenges, as tech-powered innovation and business model reinvention gather pace. Steering through uncertainty and capitalising on the openings ahead are likely to require a rethink of longstanding strategic assumptions and a step-up in the pace of operational transformation. There are pressing questions around whether wealth managers in the islands are moving far and fast enough to keep up with shifting investor expectations – in particular with regards to their demand for greater diversification and potentially higher yielding alternative investments.”
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