In Conversation with Convergence, Episode 50: George Evans and Declan Byrne of PwC Discuss the Outlook for Asset and Wealth Management

Who is Declan Byrne, and why is this episode notable?

George Evans welcomes listeners to the 50th episode of In Conversation with Convergence, a monthly podcast featuring clients and special guests, and says it has run every month for over four years. He introduces Declan Byrne, PwC's asset and wealth management global assurance leader, who he says has been with PwC for over 20 years. Evans says Convergence is about 13 years old, that PwC was probably one of its first five or 10 clients, and that the relationship started with Mike Greenstein, a now-retired PwC partner. At the end of the episode Evans thanks PwC for being a client of Convergence.

Byrne says he came to New York from Ireland in late 2004, after qualifying as a chartered accountant and being hired by PwC directly from a competitor there, expecting to stay a year or two and staying 20 years. He says he spent his twenties in New York, spent a couple of years in Tokyo managing global relationships, then moved to Boston, and has spent the last two years as PwC's global assurance leader for asset and wealth management clients.

What are PwC's footprint and focus areas?

Byrne says PwC is viewed as the number one audit and tax firm, and he cites roughly 60% market share by assets under management in mutual funds and about 80% in ETFs. He says in private markets PwC is number one or two in every asset class, though it is more competitive there. He says PwC's consulting business has been growing and that over the last two years the firm has shifted its focus toward managed services, helping clients in the back office by drawing on experience gained auditing the world's largest asset managers, including for clients that are not audit clients.

Why is Byrne optimistic about asset and wealth management?

Byrne says he is pretty optimistic, more than he would have been five years ago, and that he sees opportunities in every segment. In private markets, he says mass-affluent and high-net-worth investors want access to private markets and private credit, creating opportunities for better distribution and tie-ups with traditional asset managers and broker-dealers. He cites interval fund assets of about $100 billion as of the end of May and about 25 new interval funds this year. Evans says a recent Convergence forecast for 2025 through 2027 projects almost 46,000 new funds and almost $5 trillion in new private assets, driven by factors including less regulation and the democratization of alternatives, and that he worries most about investor protection in retail alternatives. Byrne says PwC expects private assets to grow about 20% a year globally for the next couple of years, above traditional assets.

By segment, Byrne says larger managers, those with more than a billion dollars, have the reinvestment capacity to pursue the opportunities. For mid-tier managers he sees more opportunity than ever despite consolidation, in niche funds, in active ETFs, which he says account for 80% of ETF launches this year while being only about 10% of the ETF market, and in partnerships with newer providers that improve efficiency. He also points to digital assets, which he says have reached $100 billion, and says PwC's global paper last year predicted tokenized funds of about $320 billion by 2028, noting that Asian banks, including in Japan, have already done tokenized funds. Evans says Convergence does not see the consolidation many expected, because firms have found niches, boutiques, and partnerships.

What challenges does Byrne see in the middle and back office?

Evans says the middle and back office keep getting harder, with growing headcount and technology challenges, and that some firms are just surviving. Byrne says an element of that is true: much of the investment goes to the front office, which brings in assets and revenue, while the back and middle office are in survival mode without enough investment. He says the average age of operations officers is rising, that CPA classes are down 60% from where they were 10 to 15 years ago, that succession planning is a concern, and that young people may prefer Google or Amazon to the middle office of an asset manager.

On technology, Byrne says there are great opportunities but also strain, with generative AI requiring the right governance to keep boards comfortable. He says many strong vendors exist for reconciliations, data analytics, data management, and regulatory reporting, including cloud-native and AI-native firms, but that managers, even the largest, struggle to see how vendors fit their tech stack and operations, and some say they are confused and overwhelmed. He says PwC's opportunity is to step in with its people, CPA expertise, and understanding of the technology landscape, working with vendors rather than replacing them, and that PwC is not looking to compete with administrators. He says it is a unique time in which partnerships between managers and between vendors could make the industry better.

How do Evans and Byrne describe risk scoring, self-administration, and customization?

Evans says Convergence risk-scores the middle and back office and infrastructure of an adviser, and that the red flags it finds include setups that are not scalable and that teeter on qualified audits and regulatory infractions. He says the good news is that weaknesses can be identified, and that firms facing many siloed solutions need a quarterback or general contractor. He says that, directionally, about 30% of SEC-registered advisers' funds are still self-administered, a share that has been fairly steady, and that administrators appear to be pursuing liftouts of middle and back offices rather than acquiring another administrator, which he says is more economical and avoids moving a function at a time.

Evans says what someone like Byrne brings is a best-of-breed view of the right model for each firm, possibly using multiple players. Byrne agrees, comparing it to building a customized house for its owner, and says it is not all or nothing: PwC works with many partners, brings the right partner to the table, and takes a customized, menu-based approach in which people plus technology fit each client's needs rather than offering one solution to everything.

What did Byrne say about data and AI?

Evans says that when Convergence started it focused first on getting the content and data right, which he says makes AI easier in theory. Byrne says bad data means bad AI, and that many PwC clients are experimenting with generative AI and copilots but are more focused on data management to do it at scale. He says that about 15 to 20 years ago PwC built a solution for getting data in from administrators, organizing it, enriching it with market data, and putting it on a multi-tenant platform, a hard process involving mapping and a taxonomy that took time, and that the platform now handles over $120 trillion of client assets a year through audit and tax work and underpins much of what PwC does beyond asset and wealth management.

Byrne says PwC's focus is standardization, since anything can be done at scale if standardized, followed by enrichment with market data and then AI. He says PwC is working with Microsoft, is one of the only Big Four firms in a specialized top-10 global network of Microsoft partners, which he thinks is called the Vanguard program, and plans to use the data for audit, tax, and managed services. He says many managers are on the same journey, that vendors need to be modern in AI, optical character recognition (OCR), and unstructured data, and that the industry is rallying around this but has a lot of work to do.

What did Byrne say about investor protection and education?

Evans asks what PwC is doing about investor education, given new regulated products such as business development companies (BDCs), REITs, and interval funds that require knowledge of compliance and tax. Byrne says PwC works primarily with intermediaries and that its clients focus on investor education more than PwC does. He says PwC educates managers on tax, compliance, and regulatory risks, in some cases educates investors on the tax consequences of certain investments, and brings excellence to back-office reporting, including monitoring and managing changes.

Byrne says PwC is also spending much of its time educating boards, which are newer to these products and are working through valuation, reporting, and SEC compliance, particularly as managers of public funds move into private assets and adopt new valuation policies in light of SEC rules on valuation and board reporting. The closed-end side was described as very challenging.

How does Byrne see the market, and what are PwC's priorities?

Evans, recording on July 8, 2025, asks about headwinds and tailwinds as the industry begins to discuss 2026. Byrne says markets are getting used to volatility, that tariffs will go up and down but will be priced in, and that he would not be doing his job if he knew all the answers. He says PwC wants more audit and tax clients but sees more to do for back offices beyond the audit and tax relationship, within independence rules, given its brand, size, and trust. He says back offices are managing operations while also developing new funds and products and doing everything the front office asks, and need direction and help.

How is PwC approaching people and culture?

Byrne says the pendulum has swung back toward the employer over the last couple of years, that PwC prefers more people in the office but does not have a strong mandate, and that CPAs remain the foundation while the firm gravitates toward digital skills. He says professionals who combine CPA or accounting knowledge with digital skills are in hot demand, because core audit will remain foundational but will become more sophisticated in IT auditing, cyber auditing, and understanding responsible AI. He says time in the office matters for the apprenticeship model and that the industry will be challenged to train younger staff even as AI eases paperwork, which he links back to bad data, bad AI, and the need for subject-matter experts to get good AI.

How does Byrne differentiate PwC?

Asked for an elevator pitch, Byrne says PwC has a people-plus-technology strategy but still believes people are at the heart of what it does, along with the best partners and technology. He says the depth of PwC's team and relationships is stronger than ever and will deepen as PwC grows its managed services capacity and its work with non-audit clients, and that its differentiation is partnering within an ecosystem for the greater good of the asset management community. Evans says PwC's brand and investment capacity can help firms build state-of-the-art infrastructure and that only a handful of firms can handle that discussion end to end.

Which figures did Evans and Byrne cite?

The table below lists figures as the speakers state them in July 2025. They are their statements, not independently verified.

Figures stated in Episode 50, July 2025

‍

Topics Covered