William Eady, Palm Beach Market President, Managing Director, BNY Wealth
In an interview with Invest:, William Eady, Palm Beach market president and managing director of BNY Wealth, detailed the firm’s strategy for leading in a competitive landscape, and how the company is integrating AI for efficiency, while also navigating regulatory complexity and risk management. “Regulations and political regimes change over time, with standards easing and tightening, but one must always keep a firm hand on the ball regarding risk management,” Eady said.
Over the past 12 months, what have been the most significant developments or changes that have shaped BNY Wealth’s strategic focus or operations?
As we celebrate our 241st anniversary this year, we are conscious of riding a tremendous period of positive momentum and company transformation on behalf of our clients. For BNY Wealth, we have used this momentum as an opportunity to bring more services and solutions to our clients. We have the benefit of leveraging an industry leader in our institutional investments business, which manages over $2 trillion for pension funds and sovereign wealth funds. A key strategic focus has been to bring this institutional insight and expertise to bear for our wealthy clients by breaking down silos and fostering collaboration across business lines. This has been a real source of excitement and competitive advantage for us.
How would you characterize the wealth management landscape in the Palm Beach market, and what key dynamics are influencing your approach?
Migration patterns continue to be very strong in Palm Beach County. We are benefiting from a very friendly business climate that wealth creators want to call home. The statistics are staggering. For instance, our county alone gained 14,000 net new households since the pandemic, with estimates of over $7 billion of adjusted gross income gained in a single recent year, largely from the tri-state area. We have successfully marketed ourselves as a finance hub through the “Wall Street South” initiative. However, I am very bullish on the next leg of our growth story, which involves attracting technology, engineering, and AI jobs. Announcements like ServiceNow, creating 850 new high-paying tech jobs, or Vanderbilt University building a business school campus here create tremendous positive momentum and a strong flywheel effect. For the wealth business, this has made it easier to recruit junior talent, as we are seeing significant growth in the 25- to 35-year-old demographic. Furthermore, the reluctance that clients once had to move their advisory relationships to Florida has diminished. People are now fully redomiciling here, and there is a strong appetite to have your primary banking and wealth management relationship based in Palm Beach.
How is BNY Wealth adapting to meet evolving demands?
A primary area of focus is the continuous improvement of our digital experience. This means streamlining processes like “Know Your Client” and account opening, and enabling easier, more user-friendly movements of money through our online portals. Clients today expect seamless, hassle-free experiences. However, this cannot be achieved without a focus on data protection and security. As the world’s largest global custodian, with approximately $55 trillion of assets under custody — about a fifth of the world’s investable assets — we take this responsibility very seriously. Our scale allows us to invest in best-in-class digital tools while maintaining an uncompromising security posture. Personalization is indeed key, as no two clients are the same. Every individual and family has unique goals, objectives and complex dynamics. We must recognize the different constituents within a single family as we may be working with the first-generation wealth creator, or solely with beneficiaries on a fiduciary basis, which are very different relationships.
What do you see as the most pressing challenges facing the wealth management industry today and how is your team addressing them?
I focus on two primary challenges. The first is the much-discussed generational wealth transfer. An estimated $80 trillion is projected to move from baby boomers to Generation X and millennials by 2045. Younger clients expect different service models as they are digital-first, demand transparent pricing, and often want socially responsible investing options. This requires significant adaptation for the entire industry. The second challenge is a projected advisor shortage. Estimates suggest roughly 110,000 advisers will retire over the next decade, representing around 42% of the industry’s assets, and not all have succession plans. If unaddressed, this will create a real shortage of advisers to meet market demand. At BNY Wealth, we are proactively addressing this by investing heavily in our intern and analyst programs. We are expanding headcount each year and putting programs in place to provide a holistic firm experience with real mentorship opportunities to develop the next generation of talent.
How is BNY Wealth leveraging new technologies, such as AI, data-driven platforms, or digital tools, to enhance client experiences and streamline operational efficiency?
The integration of technology, particularly AI, is a tremendous focus for us. A striking 96% of our employees are now using our in-house AI platform, called Eliza, developed in partnership with OpenAI. For many, this technology is removing what I would call the “no-joy” tasks from their day, providing a significant boost to productivity. Across the entire firm, we have more than 80 AI-enabled solutions in active production. A prime example is an agent we built to review a client’s complex estate planning documents and automatically generate the necessary flowcharting work. While advisors do double check and approve the output from Eliza, the primary goal of developing and deploying these capabilities is to save our advisors as much valuable time as possible, allowing them to be more proactive and strategic in their daily interactions with clients.
How do you address the behavioral biases that clients might bring to investment decisions?
This is particularly relevant for our entrepreneurial clients who have built a successful private business over several decades. The transition from operating a business to overseeing a liquid pool of capital can be very challenging. We address this by conducting extensive pre-transaction work well ahead of a liquidity event. This serves two purposes: ensuring we are mitigating taxes where appropriate, and, more importantly, defining distinct pools of capital. We establish what is needed for the family’s core requirements and what constitutes excess capital for more aspirational goals. When this purposeful planning is done on the front end, it provides a durable framework. During periods of market volatility, it becomes easier for clients to understand that the portfolio construction is designed to be resilient and to meet the collaboratively defined long-term objectives, helping to counteract impulsive decisions driven by short-term fear or greed.
Given increasing regulatory complexity across jurisdictions, how do you balance growth ambitions with compliance and risk management?
Risk management is central to everything we do. Having been in operation for 241 years, we understand that you cannot compromise on robust risk and compliance measures. Regulations and political regimes change over time, with standards easing and tightening, but one must always keep a firm hand on the ball regarding risk management. For instance, when clients express a desire to reach for higher returns on the risk spectrum, perhaps through private market opportunities, we must be exceptionally mindful of liquidity constraints. Our responsibility is to ensure that the appropriate solutions are placed within portfolios to meet objectives without breaching our fundamental risk framework. This framework is something we take very seriously, and it can never be compromised for the objective of chasing returns.
What is your strategic vision for BNY Wealth, particularly in the Palm Beach market?
Our strategic vision is unequivocally centered on growth. We are focused on providing the families we serve with best-in-class investment capabilities, advice and expertise to help them achieve their goals. We aim to lead from the front, continuing to be both innovative and resilient. Florida, and the Southeast in general, is a major growth engine for our U.S. wealth business. Over the past five years, our growth rates in this region have consistently been at the top of the firm’s league tables. We plan to continue investing heavily in the business, in our people, our talent and the sophisticated capabilities we offer clients across their entire balance sheet to capitalize on the tremendous momentum in this market.
