It used to be enough for wealth advisers to be fun on the golf course -- now it's all about big data

Wealth advisors used to succeed by making insightful lunch conversation, being fun on the golf course and winning referrals. These days, effectively leveraging big data is a better bet for successful marketing. The growing hoard of wealth invested with robo-advisor platforms is forcing advisers to change how they operate. By the end of 2017, $160 billion of assets will be invested in digital advice platforms, up from $65 billion a year ago, according to research by Aite Group and Broadridge. That number will swell to $400 billion by the end of 2018.