For decades, the core mandate of an investment banker was clear and narrowly defined: advise clients on mergers and acquisitions, capital raises, and strategic financings. Today, that definition is quietly but meaningfully expanding. At JPMorgan, senior bankers began to recognize a shift in the questions coming from their most important corporate clients. These executives were no longer focused solely on deal execution or balance-sheet strategy. Increasingly, they wanted to understand how the largest U.S. bank was managing its own operations—how it was deploying artificial intelligence at scale, defending itself against cyber threats, managing global real estate footprints, and delivering benefits to a massive workforce.
For wealth advisors and RIAs, this evolution is worth paying close attention to. It reflects a broader trend across financial services: clients are looking for partners, not just product or transaction expertise. They want insight into how successful institutions actually operate, govern risk, and make decisions in complex environments.
That realization led JPMorgan Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon to formalize something that had been happening informally for years—sharing the firm’s internal playbook with select clients. The result is a new initiative called Special Advisory Services, launching this week, designed to give qualifying clients access to what the firm internally refers to as its “secret sauce.”
The initiative is led by Liz Myers, JPMorgan’s global chair of investment banking, a 30-year veteran of the firm with deep experience across capital markets and advisory businesses. Under her leadership, Special Advisory Services will function as a centralized offering that connects clients directly with JPMorgan’s internal experts across a wide range of operational and strategic disciplines.
“These capabilities are on par with, or in many cases better than, what you’d find at specialized consulting firms,” Myers said in a recent interview. “Our view is that by sharing best practices from inside JPMorgan, we can help senior executives be more effective in their roles.”
From the perspective of an RIA or wealth advisor, the significance of this statement goes beyond JPMorgan itself. It underscores how large financial institutions are increasingly monetizing—or at least strategically deploying—their internal intellectual capital. Operational expertise, once considered strictly internal, is now becoming a client-facing differentiator.
The scope of the new offering is broad. JPMorgan has identified several dozen adjacent capabilities that can be made available to clients, depending on need and relevance. These include investor relations strategy, corporate real estate selection and optimization, health-care and benefits design, technology procurement, data and analytics infrastructure, cybersecurity governance, and elements of artificial intelligence deployment. In other words, the kinds of operational challenges that every growing enterprise faces—and that RIAs increasingly face as their own firms scale.
At least initially, JPMorgan does not plan to charge for these services. The intent is relationship deepening rather than direct revenue generation. However, if a client requests a more resource-intensive engagement or an ongoing advisory relationship, the firm is open to negotiating a customized fee structure.
That pricing approach is particularly instructive for independent advisors. It highlights a strategic mindset in which advisory value is first used to strengthen long-term relationships, with monetization considered later and selectively. For RIAs thinking about how to expand beyond traditional portfolio management, this model offers a useful reference point.
Importantly, Special Advisory Services is not meant for every client. JPMorgan has been explicit that access will be reserved for organizations that either already have, or are actively building, deep and durable relationships with the firm. According to the company, that group may include companies considering JPMorgan as a lead IPO advisor, long-standing clients preparing for transformational transactions, or fast-growing mid-sized companies that want to make JPMorgan their primary operating bank.
In other words, this is a loyalty-driven offering. Expertise is treated as a scarce resource, deployed selectively where it can reinforce strategic partnerships. Myers emphasized this point directly, noting that more than two-thirds of the experts involved are internally focused professionals whose primary responsibility is running JPMorgan itself.
“These are people whose number-one job is to make sure our firm operates effectively,” she said. “They’re a precious resource, so we have to be thoughtful about who gets access.”
For RIAs, this framing should resonate. As advisory firms grow, their own internal experts—compliance leaders, technology architects, operations heads—become increasingly valuable. Deciding when and how to leverage that expertise externally, whether with clients or strategic partners, becomes a key leadership question.
At launch, the Special Advisory Services group will be relatively small, consisting of a handful of professionals coordinating access to a much larger internal bench. Over time, JPMorgan may scale the initiative if client demand proves meaningful. The firm is deliberately taking a measured approach, preferring to test, refine, and ensure quality before expanding.
This deliberate pacing reflects JPMorgan’s broader culture, one that wealth advisors often cite as a reason institutional clients trust the firm. It is also a reminder that not every innovation needs to be rolled out at full scale immediately. Thoughtful piloting can be a competitive advantage.
The timing of the launch is notable. JPMorgan is preparing to report fourth-quarter and full-year earnings, and its investment banking franchise remains the global leader by fee revenue. According to LSEG estimates, JPMorgan generated approximately $9.44 billion in investment banking fees for the year through December 11, capturing roughly 7.4% of global wallet share. That market position gives the firm both credibility and leverage when offering operational insights to clients.
For wealth advisors and RIAs, the takeaway is not that they should replicate JPMorgan’s model wholesale. Rather, it is that the definition of “advice” is expanding. Clients increasingly value insight into systems, processes, and decision-making frameworks—not just financial outcomes.
As RIAs compete for sophisticated clients, particularly business owners and executives, the ability to speak fluently about technology strategy, risk management, governance, and operational scalability is becoming more important. Even if advisors are not delivering these services directly, understanding how large institutions approach them can enhance conversations, deepen trust, and position the advisor as a true strategic partner.
JPMorgan’s Special Advisory Services initiative is ultimately about leverage—leveraging internal excellence to strengthen external relationships. For the independent advisory community, it offers a powerful example of how expertise, thoughtfully deployed, can become a differentiator in an increasingly competitive landscape.
