From Apple to AirBnB, platform strategy has demonstrated its value by creating a high-value marketplace with limited asset ownership. In the financial industry, banking-as-a-platform has been successfully applied by challenger banks. Incumbent banks, however, have shown little interest for various historical reasons: no benefit of network effect (aka opening-up to third-parties) and little incentive to innovate given their significant and stable market share. Instead their narrative has been about digitising their service proposition, mainly around distribution channels. Yet the consumer landscape has dramatically changed over the last years: 24/7 connectivity, social network and change in client (particularly millennials) expectation in how, when and where products and services are consumed. Moreover, consumers have been trained to enjoy the benefits of interconnectivity and interoperability and the Second Payment Services Directive (PSD2), effective on 13 January 2018, will provide that benefit by forcing banks to authorize third-parties to access payment methods and data from customers’ payment and bank accounts. As other services could come next, a platform strategy is therefore a must-have for any wealth management firm wishing to succeed in a new competitive landscape. Building a platform poses a series of challenges and, using latest research on platform strategy and interviews with both wealth management firms and startups, we provide a road map for wealth management firms allowing them to still “own their clients”. Results show that, for a successful implementation, these firms must go through several steps. Firstly, review the value chain and decide where they add the most value (i.e. their core business); secondly, review their architecture and map potential partners / complementors that could replace non-core business; thirdly, define the governance structure (i.e. rules of engagement such as when to partner and when to compete). Given the magnitude of change in business architecture, particular resources should be allocated to shaping the firm’s culture around agility and the number of potential business partners on cybersecurity. Author: Pierre-Jean Hanard Follow: @pjhanard