DBS Sees Strong Growth in Millennial Affluent Clients as Wealth Advice and Investment Planning Gain Momentum
More Singaporean millennials are beginning their wealth-building journeys earlier, with a growing number of customers in their 30s and early 40s seeking professional financial advice and taking concrete steps to manage and grow their wealth.
At DBS, this trend is becoming increasingly visible. The number of millennial retail customers who progressed into the bank’s DBS Treasures wealth-management segment nearly tripled during the first half of 2026 compared with the same period in 2025. The sharp increase highlights a growing appetite among younger affluent customers for structured wealth planning, investment solutions and professional financial advice.
The development reflects a broader shift in how younger Singaporeans approach personal finance. Rather than waiting until later in their careers to begin serious wealth planning, many are increasingly recognizing the benefits of starting earlier and allowing their investments more time to grow.
Changing lifestyles, longer life expectancies, evolving career paths, higher financial commitments and increasingly dynamic investment markets are all influencing how consumers think about their financial futures.
For younger affluent customers, wealth management is increasingly becoming a long-term process rather than something reserved for individuals approaching retirement.
Younger Customers Are Starting Their Wealth Journeys Earlier
The sharp increase in millennial customers entering DBS Treasures suggests that younger professionals are becoming more proactive about their finances.
Individuals in their 30s and early 40s may face a combination of competing financial priorities, including home ownership, family expenses, children’s education, retirement preparation and long-term investment goals.
At the same time, they have potentially longer investment horizons than older customers. Beginning to invest and plan earlier can give them more time to navigate market cycles and build wealth gradually.
This longer horizon can also provide greater flexibility. Customers who begin financial planning earlier may have more opportunities to adjust their strategies as their income, financial responsibilities and personal objectives change.
The growth in DBS Treasures customers therefore points to a broader transformation in wealth management, where younger generations are becoming increasingly comfortable seeking professional advice before reaching traditional high-net-worth milestones.
Existing DBS Customers Are Progressing Into Wealth Management
A significant portion of DBS’ wealth growth is coming from customers who already have an established relationship with the bank.
In the first half of 2026, seven in 10 DBS Treasures customers who progressed into the segment had originally started banking with DBS as retail customers.
This demonstrates the potential value of long-term customer relationships.
Customers may initially join a bank for basic services such as savings accounts, payments or credit products. As their careers progress and their financial circumstances become more complex, their needs can evolve toward investments, insurance, retirement planning and other wealth-management services.
DBS is seeking to support customers throughout this progression.
Andrew Bok, Head of DBS Treasures Singapore, said the bank aims to grow alongside customers throughout their wealth journey, from their first investments through retirement and legacy planning.
The ability to maintain a relationship across different stages of a customer’s financial life can provide banks with a deeper understanding of changing needs.
For customers, it can also create continuity as they transition from basic banking services to more sophisticated financial planning.
Wealth Growth Is Not Limited to Millennials
Although millennial customers are showing particularly strong momentum, the trend is broader across DBS’ retail customer base.
The number of DBS retail customers progressing into DBS Treasures increased 180% year over year in the first half of 2026.
This suggests that a growing number of existing DBS customers across different age groups are moving into higher wealth segments.
The development may reflect increasing awareness of the importance of professional financial planning, as well as customers becoming more comfortable with investment products and advisory services.
The bank is also seeing evidence that customers who enter DBS Treasures can subsequently deepen their investment relationships.
The investment balances of customers who moved into DBS Treasures during 2025 have since increased by nearly six times, indicating significantly greater investment engagement over time.
This growth illustrates how the relationship between a bank and a newly affluent customer can evolve after the customer enters a wealth-management segment.
Starting Early Can Create More Financial Options
The growing interest among younger customers also reflects a greater awareness of the importance of time in wealth creation.
Starting investment planning earlier can provide customers with a longer period over which to build their portfolios and potentially benefit from long-term market growth.
For customers in their 30s and early 40s, wealth planning may involve multiple objectives that extend over several decades.
These can include building retirement savings, funding children’s education, purchasing additional property, creating emergency reserves, supporting parents and eventually planning for the transfer of wealth to future generations.
Professional advice can help customers organize these objectives and understand how different financial products may fit into their broader plans.
Rather than focusing exclusively on short-term market opportunities, long-term wealth planning can help customers establish a more structured approach to their finances.
Longer Lifespans Are Changing Financial Planning
Increasing longevity is another factor affecting the way Singaporeans approach wealth.
Living longer can mean that retirement savings need to support individuals for a greater number of years.
As a result, retirement planning cannot necessarily be treated as a one-time financial decision.
Customers may need to consider how their assets will be invested, how income will be generated during retirement and how their financial plans can adapt to changing circumstances.
Longer lifespans also increase the importance of healthcare planning, estate planning and wealth transfer.
These considerations are encouraging more customers to seek advice earlier in their financial lives.
For younger affluent customers, beginning these conversations early can help create a longer-term financial roadmap rather than requiring major adjustments later.
Career Changes Add Complexity
Modern career paths are also becoming less predictable.
Professionals may change employers more frequently, establish businesses, work across countries or develop multiple sources of income.
These changes can make traditional financial planning more complicated.
A customer with variable income or multiple financial commitments may require a more flexible investment and savings strategy.
This environment increases the potential value of professional financial advice.
Wealth advisers can help customers assess their financial position, identify priorities and adjust their portfolios as their circumstances change.
DBS is positioning its wealth-management platform to support customers through these different stages.
DBS Expands Its Wealth Advisory Workforce
The growing demand for wealth advice is also influencing DBS’ investment in its people.
The bank plans to hire more than 600 additional relationship managers, frontline advisers and platform engineers by the end of 2028.
The expansion is designed to increase the bank’s ability to serve a growing number of customers seeking wealth-management support.
Relationship managers play an important role in helping customers understand their financial objectives and navigate investment options.
As more younger customers enter wealth segments, advisers may increasingly need to address clients who are still in the accumulation stage of their financial journeys rather than those already approaching retirement.
This could require a different mix of financial planning, investment education and portfolio management services.
Expansion of Wealth Centres
DBS is also expanding its physical wealth-management presence.
The bank plans to open 18 new wealth centres and upgrade 36 existing centres across the region by the end of 2027.
In Singapore specifically, the DBS Treasures wealth-centre footprint is expected to increase by 50%.
The expansion demonstrates that physical locations continue to have an important role in wealth management despite the rapid growth of digital banking.
These wealth centres are designed primarily for conversations rather than routine transactions.
Customers can use the spaces to review investment portfolios, discuss long-term financial objectives and meet relationship managers and specialists.
The approach reflects DBS’ view that digital technology and personal advice can complement rather than replace one another.
Combining Digital Technology With Human Advice
The wealth-management industry has undergone significant digital transformation in recent years.
Customers increasingly use digital channels to monitor portfolios, access financial information and complete routine transactions.
However, complex financial decisions can still benefit from personal interaction.
Questions about retirement planning, investment allocation, estate planning and long-term financial objectives may require detailed conversations that go beyond what a standard digital interface can provide.
DBS is therefore combining its investment in physical wealth centres and advisory personnel with technology designed to make advisers more efficient.
The objective is to allow relationship managers to spend more time on high-value customer conversations while reducing the administrative burden associated with wealth management.
AI Helps Relationship Managers Serve Customers Faster
Artificial intelligence is becoming an increasingly important part of DBS’ wealth-management operations.
AI-enabled tools are helping relationship managers automate and streamline certain processes, creating more capacity for customer engagement.
One example is the onboarding process for new-to-bank wealth customers.
DBS said that turnaround time for onboarding these customers has been reduced by 50% through the use of technology.
Faster onboarding can improve the customer experience while allowing advisers to focus more of their time on understanding financial objectives and providing advice.
The development illustrates how AI can be used as an operational tool rather than simply as a customer-facing technology.
By reducing repetitive administrative work, AI can help relationship managers dedicate more time to activities that require human judgment and relationship-building.
Human Relationships Remain Central
Despite increasing automation, DBS believes human interaction remains an important differentiator in wealth management.
Technology can analyze information, automate processes and make services more accessible, but customers may still value having a trusted adviser available to discuss major financial decisions.
This is particularly relevant as customers move from simple banking products to more complex wealth-management needs.
The physical wealth centres and expanded advisory workforce are intended to reinforce this relationship-based approach.
DBS’ strategy therefore combines three elements: people, physical engagement and technology.
More advisers increase capacity, wealth centres provide dedicated spaces for financial discussions, and AI-enabled systems help reduce the operational workload associated with serving customers.
A Shift in the Wealth Management Landscape
The growth in younger affluent customers could have broader implications for Singapore’s wealth-management industry.
As millennials accumulate more wealth, financial institutions may need to adapt their services to meet the expectations of a generation that has grown up with digital technology.
Younger customers are likely to expect seamless digital experiences while also demanding personalized advice when making important financial decisions.
They may also place greater emphasis on flexibility and transparency.
Banks that can combine convenient digital services with high-quality human advice could be better positioned to build long-term relationships with this customer segment.
DBS’ investment in both technology and physical advisory infrastructure reflects this changing environment.
The nearly threefold increase in millennial retail customers progressing into DBS Treasures during the first half of 2026 demonstrates a growing appetite among younger Singaporeans for professional wealth advice and investment planning.
At the same time, the 180% year-over-year increase in retail customers progressing into the Treasures segment shows that the trend extends well beyond millennials.
The subsequent increase in investment balances among customers who entered DBS Treasures in 2025 further suggests that wealth relationships can deepen significantly once customers begin engaging more actively with investment services.
For DBS, these developments are prompting continued investment in advisers, wealth centres and technology.
The planned recruitment of more than 600 relationship managers, frontline advisers and platform engineers by the end of 2028, together with the opening of 18 new wealth centres and upgrades to 36 existing centres, represents a significant commitment to expanding the bank’s wealth-management capabilities.
At the same time, AI-enabled tools are helping reduce administrative workloads and accelerate processes such as customer onboarding.
The broader message from DBS is that wealth management is increasingly becoming a lifelong financial journey rather than a service customers seek only later in life.
For younger affluent Singaporeans, starting earlier can provide more time to build wealth, reassess financial goals and prepare for retirement and eventual wealth transfer.
By combining digital technology with professional advice and long-term customer relationships, DBS is positioning its wealth-management business to serve a new generation of affluent customers while continuing to support existing clients as their financial needs evolve.
Source link: https://www.dbs.com
