How will the financial services industry divvy up the $28.6 trillion Americans currently have in investable assets? If you are a heavy hitter in the wealth management business, you were probably at the latest Tiburon CEO Summit at the Ritz-Carlton at Battery Park in New York City to find out.

How will the financial services industry divvy up the $28.6 trillion Americans currently have in investable assets?

If you are a heavy hitter in the wealth management business, you were probably at the semi-annual Tiburon CEO Summit at the Ritz-Carlton at Battery Park in New York City yesterday to find out - and make sure you got your piece of that lucrative pie.

Indeed, the topic of the keynote presentation was no less than “the future of wealth management,” delivered by Tiburon Strategic Advisors managing partner Chip Roame in his trademark fast-paced and irreverent stand-up style.

The heavily-hyped “break-away broker” phenomenon, Roame said, is just beginning. But, he cautioned, the rate of its acceleration will be determined almost entirely by the big wirehouses. “If they want to pay people to stay,” he said, “they can, and they will.”

Self-directed investing will grow rapidly, he asserted. “In the next ten years you’re going to see a reversal in the number of bank branches and discount brokerage firm branches across the country,” Roame predicted.