Selected previous research · 2026
The Third Wave of Finance
How data aggregation and agentic AI could shift financial services from product-centred interfaces toward independent, person-centred financial guidance.
Overview
The paper describes financial services as developing through successive waves. Earlier waves expanded access to financial products and then made banking, brokerage, and investing more convenient, while leaving the underlying experience organised around products.
It argues that consolidated financial data and agentic AI now make a different model possible: an independent financial companion that starts with a person's circumstances, questions, and goals. The paper focuses particularly on HENRYs and EMILLIs—people with meaningful cash reserves whose perceived complexity, risk, stress, or choice overload can prevent them from investing.
The proposed architecture combines conversational guidance, aggregated personal financial information, structural independence, safeguards, and regulated execution partners. Its purpose is to help users understand their options and move from financial inertia toward informed action.
Research themes
- Evolution from product access to person-centred finance
- Financial inertia among HENRYs and EMILLIs
- Data aggregation and conversational, agentic AI
- Independent guidance with regulated execution
Citation and full paper
Holste, B., Guimaraes Baum, M. P. S., & Tettenborn, V. (2026). The Third Wave of Finance. SSRN. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.7111658