In his annual letter to shareholders, JPMorgan Chase Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon noted the bank’s growth, as well as its rising stock price, over the last 10 years and highlighted segments that will help it continue to grow in the future, including wealth management.
Along with plans to expand consumer banking into 10 to 20 new markets in the United States and continue to boost technology across the company, Dimon said there is opportunity to grow its asset and wealth management division. Within the segment, asset management had revenue of $6.34 billion in 2017 and wealth management brought in $6.57 billion. It was the second year in a row that wealth management revenue was greater than asset management's and it operates at a higher ratio, according to the bank’s 2017 annual report.
JPMorgan Chase has a significant presence in the market for the wealthiest individuals and families in the United States. Its share of the ultra-high-net worth market (clients with $10 million in investable assets or more) is 8 percent and Dimon said it can grow that share by “adding bankers, branches and better products.”
The bank is behind others in working with the high-net-worth clients (with $3 to $10 million) and affluent ones ($500,000 to $5 million), which it has 1 percent and 4 percent of the market, respectively. But in his letter to shareholders, Dimon said the additions of bankers, branches and new products will help grow those market shares.
“We have no doubt that we can grow by adding bankers and locations, particularly because we have some exciting new products coming soon,” Dimon said in the letter. “There is no reason we can’t more than double our share over the next 10 years.”
In 2018, the bank will introduce new digital tools to help customers invest and trade from their phones, as well as connect them with an advisor when they need one, according to the full 2017 annual report. Several other companies, including Merrill Lynch and the robo advisor Betterment, already offer some version of this, including à la carte model portfolios and the option to work with an advisor.
“Ultimately, we want to be at the intersection of human and digitally enhanced advice,” Mary Callahan Erdoes, the CEO of JPMorgan Asset and Wealth Management, said in the annual report.
Since 2006, revenue and long-term assets under management has grown more than 90 percent. The bank’s total client assets has grown from $1.3 trillion in 2016 to $2.8 trillion in 2017 and average loans have ballooned from $26.5 billion to $123.5 billion in the same period.
It also now has more than 2,600 wealth management advisors after adding more than a 1,100 from 2006 to 2017.