Why Verified Wealth Intelligence Is the New Standard for Prospecting Success

We’ll get right to the point: AI-driven databases and predictive modeling don’t get the job done. A bold, confident statement, but confidence is precisely what companies need when prospecting is on the line and one missed opportunity can cascade to many. How do these systems and processes fail you? It’s a one-two punch to productivity.

1. Traditional databases are information banks. For wealth management firms and advisors, that means leads. Those leads, more often than not, haven’t been properly verified and vetted, meaning you’re potentially prospecting on bad, outdated data.
2. Those leads aren’t being properly qualified and correlated, meaning you’re not just missing out on priceless insight that’s critical for conversion. You’re also not uncovering the even more valuable connections between leads that keep your prospecting pipeline flowing.

You don’t need information to succeed—you need intelligence: verified wealth intelligence.

The evolving wealth data landscape

More wealthy people mean more wealth data. Globally, there is an estimated 16 million individuals with at least $1M in investable wealth each. Together, they hold a collective stock of $67.3T of investable assets, equivalent to more than half of global annual GDP. You’d think the staggering net worth numbers would drive the data conversation, but they don’t—not entirely. You can’t minimize the importance of a word: “individuals.”

Wealth isn’t what it used to be—neither are the wealthy. The definition of wealth has rapidly changed, even in the last five years. Americans now believe it takes an average of $2.3 million to be considered wealthy—a 21% rise since 2021. Meanwhile, a new wealth class is being created by everything from generational wealth transfer and emerging industries—like cryptocurrency and AI—to social media.

And people’s motivations for—and relationship—with wealth have changed, too. The new affluent tend to see wealth as a way to acquire experiences, not more wealth, and make an impact on causes that matter to them.

What does this say about the wealth data landscape? Everything.

The days of simply talking dollars, cents and investment offerings are long gone. You need to understand more than a prospect’s financial picture—you have to be able to talk to their unique needs and wants: generational, professional, motivational, and more. Unless you’re approaching them as exactly that—individuals—you won’t get past the introduction.

And this is where the data rubber meets the road.

Traditional wealth databases: pitfalls and shortfalls

You don’t just need a lot of data—you need a robust universe of clean, verified data you can rely on. Even more importantly, data won’t get the client prospecting and acquisition job done if it isn’t actionable.

This is where traditional wealth databases often come up short.

Questionable data quality

HNW data providers screen data from multiple, typically publicly available, sources. This can include:

• Tax assessments and property records
• Company websites
• SEC and corporate filings
• Private company transactions
• Real estate transactions
• Higher education alumni publications
• Philanthropic giving records
• General media

There are several hazards of relying on a wealth database populated by query-based modeling and searches, all tied to the lack of human-driven sourcing and verification.

• Unverified data: Some data may be provided without a source, meaning there’s no way to validate source legitimacy or data quality.
• Incorrect data: Data of all kinds and from all sources is subject to errors in initial research, entry, calculation, and more that will often remain uncorrected over time.
• Out-of-date data: People’s lives change fast—but data sources don’t always (or can’t) keep up. So, there’s a good chance your data was out of date the minute it was collected—and there’s no knowing when it will be refreshed.

The impact? Prospecting strategies or targets determined by unverified, incorrect, or out-of-date data have a greater chance of failure. That means you’ve not only lost money on the data but time and effort that could have been spent on qualified leads. And, like bad data, missed opportunities can add up.

Incomplete (or non-existent) analysis

A traditional database is a source of quantitative data—just hard facts and figures. You need qualitative data that comes from using those facts and figures to paint a picture of a prospect. That will help you develop actionable prospect personas that frame your strategy.

Consider the scenario…

You sort prospects based on several parameters pertinent to your particular effort and pick the top ten based on their data alignment. You prospect them all and come up empty. How did that happen? Your data said they had all the markers for client conversion. The problem was you studied data in a narrative vacuum.

There are considerable blank spaces between data points that only qualitative analysis can fill. It’s those filled-in blanks that connect the data and give you the full prospect picture. With that in hand, you can make educated, confident prospecting decisions that result in client acquisition and conversion.

Empty relationship maps

Those data point gaps don’t only prevent you from creating a meaningful image of a client or prospect, they also put up roadblocks that stop you from making valuable connections between individuals and organizations. Relationship mapping lets you see more than how individuals and entities are linked—you gain insight into why they’re linked. Those pathways are your key to creating the warm handshakes critical to prospect pipeline development and growth.

Verified wealth intelligence: human-powered data for high-net-worth performance

AI may be the tech du jour, but there’s nothing “yesterday” about human-driven data. Verified wealth intelligence is essentially a human-based “AI intervention” that eliminates the validation problem of traditional wealth database hazards. Data scientists—real people—are behind the systems that collect, verify, and qualify every datapoint firms and advisors need for superior lead generation and client acquisition.

A verified wealth intelligence platform isn’t just scraping publicly accessible information and dropping it unchecked—and rarely, if ever, updated—into the database on which you’re going to base your prospecting strategy. You’re getting human-verified individual and firm-level intelligence, including wealth, liquidity, philanthropy, board or executive paths, and more.

Beyond the data, the most important component of a verified intelligence platform is its CRM capabilities. Connecting data with analysis gives you the integrated insights and people/company links and relationships a traditional wealth database simply doesn’t offer.

Below is a list of product and service features to look for in a verified wealth intelligence platform.

Verified net worth and wallet share

Advisors get an accurate, holistic, and “time-stamped” view of an individual’s wealth—and how they use it and the motivations behind that.

• Total investable holdings: A combination of declared net worth, real estate, private company valuations, trust structures, and philanthropic giving that provide insight into their liquidity, as well as wealth applications and motivations.
• Life events: Anything that can offer a window into an individual’s changing wealth profile, like inheritances and business sales.
• Relational events: Opening a new family office, making large purchases, and hobbies and interests offer a personal glimpse into an individual that public information can’t.
• Professional events: A deep dive into a person’s career history, including board memberships, can show you their professional trajectory and potential earning capacity.

Relationship mapping

Warm handshakes are the “golden ticket” of prospecting—and having straight lines between your advisors, existing clients, and their network is what gets your pipeline on “board” with your ideal prospects: C-suite executives, board members, and industry leaders.

CRM integration

When your existing systems communicate with a verified wealth intelligence platform, your:

• Data hygiene and research efficiency get an instant boost, with scoring of existing leads and client records.
• Intelligence becomes scalable, with screening of large client or prospect databases fueling proprietary scoring models and automating the discovery of hidden HNW and UHNW capacity within your existing data.
• Research, relationship mapping visualization, and executive marketing provide a dedicated environment for complex research teams to prepare comprehensive engagement strategies.

Unverified data costs you time, effort, and money

Traditional wealth databases get you out of the prospecting game on four downs:

• Chasing quantity over quality: A large volume of leads doesn’t mean success—not when they’re incorrect or out of date, and you’re left with questionable, unverified wealth insights.
• Blanking out:  A lack of data contextualization means you’re prospecting cold and blind, with no way of knowing how to start a meaningful conversation, let alone keep it going.
• Mapping to nowhere: With no clear lines from your clients to their network, you have no access to the warm introductions that are critical to starting a relationship on firm footing.
• Missing the buzzer: No real-time updates to a prospect’s critical information, especially liquidity events (IPOs, M&As, and large equity payouts), means you’re missing peak client acquisition readiness.

And it’s not just the game at hand that traditional wealth databases can put you in danger of losing. Compliance issues arising from poor data integrity, regulatory reporting failures, improper client qualifying, third-party data risks, and more can disrupt business and your reputation at best and lead to considerable fines at worst.

Turn information into insight with verified wealth intelligence

Data is good, but not any data. Data cannot just be scraped; it must be verified and continually updated by human data professionals. You not only cut out the compliance risks but also save your advisors lost time and effort chasing down unqualified leads and the risk of missing the real opportunities.

Verified wealth intelligence unlocks the true power of your existing data by weaving it into a client or prospect narrative. That narrative is your foundation for building a meaningful, lasting relationship based on deep insights on them as a person and professional. And the story doesn’t end there—it continues when they serve as the warm handoff to people in their network, helping you and your advisors continue to grow your business.

Altrata is a leader in verified wealth intelligence, combining human-designed and curated systems with powerful CRM capabilities that let you confidently develop and execute your prospecting strategies. Contact us today to learn more.

Frequently asked questions

What is verified wealth intelligence?

Unlike traditional wealth management databases that are typically driven by AI or predictive modeling, verified wealth intelligence platforms are designed and managed by human data scientists.

What’s the difference? Isn’t all data the same, whether you get it from AI or a human?

Big and no. Data in a traditional wealth database is collected by scraping public sources. It is not verified, validated, or time-stamped before it’s packaged and delivered to an advisor or firm. That means you could be building and executing your prospecting strategy on incomplete, inaccurate, or outdated data, costing you time, effort, and money.

All data found in verified wealth intelligence platforms is just that: verified. It is verified by humans, who ensure you’re getting more than just disparate datapoints, but individual- and firm-level intelligence, including wealth, liquidity, philanthropy, board or executive paths, and more.

But isn’t more data better?

If it’s good data, yes. But data isn’t the whole story. You need to fill in the blanks between data points to find the real story behind a prospect’s wealth: needs, wants, motivations, and more. It’s that information that’s critical to a client acquisition strategy.

An important thing to remember about good data is what can happen from bad data. Aside from distracting you from prospecting the best candidates, costing you time and effort, bad data also raises potential compliance risks that can cost you reputation and money—and even your business.

Do traditional wealth databases give me a full prospect picture?

No. They give you the data, but don’t make sense of it for you. That’s where a verified wealth intelligence platform’s CRM is a game changer. A CRM connects the data dots to give advisors the robust, integrated insights about and between individuals and companies they need to start conversations and build relationships. And it’s not just for today—CRM-driven insights help draw relationship maps that let advisors navigate a client’s network and uncover warm-handshake-target prospects within them.