At IPEM Wealth 2026 in Cannes, Annabel Spring, CEO of Allfunds, the $1.7 trillion platform connecting fund managers with distributors in 66 countries, laid out what the wealth management industry must become, and what's standing in the way.
Key takeaways from this interview
01. 1.7 trillion reasons the Infrastructure matters Allfunds sits at the center of global fund distribution with $1.7T in assets, 17 offices, 66 countries. Annabel's insight: the plumbing of wealth management is as strategically important as the products flowing through it. Getting that infrastructure right is the precondition for everything else.
02. Three words define what Wealth becomes: Global, Digital, Integrated Wealth is no longer a local, analog, siloed business. Clients expect instant access to a full architecture of investments (mutual funds, ETFs, and private markets) in one seamless experience. The platforms that deliver this will define the next era of wealth management.
The future of wealth management is global, digital, and integrated. Clients expect instantaneous access to a full range of investments and that is reshaping the entire industry. - Annabel Spring, Allfunds
03. Education and Infrastructure: The two unlock keys Adding private markets to a wealth offering sounds simple — but Annabel identifies two persistent blockers: investors and advisors who don't yet fully understand the asset class, and operational infrastructure that isn't yet built for the complexity. Both are solvable. Neither is trivial.
04. Access is the credible mega-trend of our time Annabel's closing conviction: private markets represent something genuinely differentiated: returns and opportunities that are simply not available in public markets. Making that accessible to a broad investor base is not just a business opportunity; it's the defining direction of the industry.
