SINGAPORE - DBS Bank customer Lim Mei Luan was pleasantly surprised when she received an e-mail from the bank a few months ago informing her that she had been assigned a wealth planning manager.“I thought wealth planning managers assist only high-net-worth customers,” she said.The 44-year-old small business owner has since met the manager, who helped review her financial portfolio and guided her in using digiWealth – a wealth planning platform built into the DBS digibank app. That meeting gave her the confidence to buy her first investment product with the bank, she added.Lim is one of 3.8 million retail customers at DBS with access to a personal wealth planning manager since the bank kicked off this initiative in 2023. These eligible customers, aged between 18 and 68, make up roughly eight in 10 of the bank’s retail customers.Nelson Neo, DBS’ head of retail banking and head of POSB, said his team started sending personalised e-mails to customers about the service in 2023.“Over the past three years, we have seen more customers taking action in planning for their future, either through investments via digiWealth, or they started to plan with their wealth planning manager,” said Neo.DBS head of retail banking and head of POSB Nelson Neo. PHOTO: DBSDBS reinforces engagement by sending customers portfolio updates, market trends and policy changes that could affect their financial plans.These nudges appear to be working, with reverse inquiries – where customers proactively reach out to their wealth planning managers – tripling in the first four months of 2026 compared with the same period a year earlier.Nearly one million customers of DBS and its subsidiary POSB now actively invest or hold insurance products through the bank.DBS aims to double that number by 2030.The bank also saw growing appetite for more sophisticated investment and insurance solutions. The number of retail customers who opted to “upgrade” to the DBS Treasures segment – reserved for customers with at least $350,000 in investible assets – rose 130 per cent year on year in the first quarter of 2026.To cater to this growing affluent segment, DBS said it will open two new Treasures centres in Singapore by the end of 2027, adding to its existing three branches.This comes as all three local banks are aggressively pivoting to wealth management to offset lower profits from lending on the back of lower interest rates.At OCBC Bank and UOB, dedicated relationship managers are typically assigned to only clients in the affluent and higher-tier segments, although retail customers can also visit their bank’s branches to request advice from a relationship manager.At DBS, more than 70 per cent of its 700 wealth planning managers actively refer customers to digiWealth, where they can invest in products such as unit trusts and exchange-traded funds on their own.But the bank said access to human advisers remains just as important.DBS head of digiWealth Jamie Lee said customers often seek deeper conversations that extend beyond investing, including discussions about major life goals such as buying a home or starting a family as well as long-term financial planning. Wealth planning managers, she said, play a key role in these discussions.DBS head of digiWealth Jamie Lee. PHOTO: DBSThis strategy appears to be paying off, as retail wealth revenue almost doubled from 2023 to 2025.“The initiative enabled us to reach customers much further than other banks and that’s why we decided that retail wealth was a viable strategy,” said Lee.DBS senior wealth planning manager Javier Teo, who sees about 15 to 20 retail customers a week, said a common struggle among customers is the difficulty in navigating the vast amount of financial information available online.“They would come to us to cross-check certain information, so that they can get a fresh perspective from trained financial advisers and wealth planning managers with the bank,” he said.The 28-year-old, who has been with DBS for nearly two years, works with customers ranging from young adults focused on building wealth to seniors planning for retirement and succession.He said it can be challenging to help some customers understand more complex financial concepts and products.But he strives to provide clear, actionable advice that aligns with their life goals, financial situation and risk appetite, while ensuring they fully understand the risks and fees involved.Teo also hopes to correct a common misconception among customers that they need to have a certain sum of money before they can start investing.“We want our customers to start investing, no matter how small,” he said.