SEI Says Asia Will Benefit from Shift to Advice-Centric Business Model

HONG KONG, June 23 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- At a presentation during the Fourth Annual Private Banking Asia 2008 Conference held recently in Singapore, SEI (Nasdaq: SEIC), a leading global provider of outsourced asset management, investment processing, and investment operations solutions, highlighted the fact that wealth management organizations in Asia are facing tremendous opportunities as the industry shifts from a product-oriented to advice-centric business model. The need for wealth management organizations to re-evaluate the way they allocate resources and source their value chain is key to the evolution of business models.

Bill Cassidy, Managing Director, SEI Investments (Asia) Ltd., said, "As the Asian market continues to grow exponentially, wealth management providers face significant opportunities, as well as challenges, in their efforts to drive customer value. Today, organizations are focused not only on their strategic imperatives to grow revenue and reduce cost, but also on becoming more competitive. To capitalize on the market shift, business models need to transform from being product-oriented to advice-centric."

Mr. Cassidy said the five key market dynamics that are shaping the industry's future and are likely to drive the transformation of wealth management organizations include:

    -- Changing client expectations for wealth management services
    -- Difficulty in creating competitive differentiation
    -- Growing need for compliance and enterprise risk management
    -- Capitalizing on opportunities of technology deployment
    -- The need for evolving business models

According to Mr. Cassidy, to enable this transformation of business models, organizations will be forced to make strategic sourcing decisions across each component of their value chain. He added, "While historically the value chain was sourced almost entirely in-house, we believe competing in the future will require opening up the value chain and partnering with outside experts. Working with the right business services partner can help wealth management firms capture opportunities and meet the challenges presented by these market dynamics."

SEI's Global Wealth Services (GWS) helps organizations capitalize on opportunities and develop the wealth management value chain to enable them to deliver an enhanced customer experience. GWS has been developed to help organizations transform their businesses by focusing on growing revenue while minimizing cost, managing risk and allocating capital more effectively. It encompasses a full suite of services enabling comprehensive advice, client acquisition, client management, asset management, investment processing and infrastructure and business services management that are designed to help wealth management organizations capitalize on their strategic objectives in a rapidly changing market.

About SEI's Private Banks Segment

SEI's Private Banks business segment delivers investment management and wealth processing services through its Global Wealth Services solution to private banks and wealth management organizations. SEI enables wealth managers to meet the rapidly evolving business and investment needs of their clients by helping them grow and protect revenue, minimize cost and allocate capital effectively, enable risk management and help manage transformation. SEI's solutions are used by over 290 clients in 9 countries. For more information, visit http://www.seic.com/banks/.

About SEI

SEI (Nasdaq: SEIC) is a leading global provider of outsourced asset management, investment processing and investment operations solutions. The company's innovative solutions help corporations, financial institutions, financial advisors, and affluent families create and manage wealth. As of March 31, 2008, through its subsidiaries and partnerships in which the company has a significant interest, SEI administers $424 billion in mutual fund and pooled assets and manages $185 billion in assets. SEI serves clients, conducts or is registered to conduct business and/or operations from more than 20 offices in over a dozen countries. For more information, visit http://www.seic.com.

    Contact:
    Company Contact:            Media Contact:
    Dana Grosser                Elisabeth Behr
    SEI                         Braithwaite Communications
    610.676.2459                215.564.3200 x113
    dgrosser@seic.com           ebehr@braithwaitepr.com

SOURCE SEI

Released June 23, 2008