4th May 2016
Sammedia: You don’t need to be a robo to be digital
When talking digital strategy, most advisers I speak with are looking at automated simplified advice (AKA ‘robo’) technology to service those who cannot afford or do not value face to face advice. I challenge this strategy by asking advice firms how they plan to acquire these customers, drive traffic to their site and convince them to invest if the business is not experienced in direct marketing.
Successful adviser firms have very profitable existing client relationships gained through referrals and should focus on increasing the level of digital interaction that supports and reinforces these existing relationships. There is significant and growing evidence showing that higher net worth individuals want (and indeed expect) digital interaction from their advisers. We have summarised some of these findings in this infographic.
In the US account aggregation is being adopted at a far faster rate than robo-advice. Personal Capital alone has over 1 million users on its account aggregation platform. Account Aggregation allows your client to see all of their finances together with one logon. Their investments, savings, pensions, bank accounts, credit cards, properties, mortgages, insurances etc.
Adviser firms can provide automated account aggregation and a generally richer client reporting experience right now to support their current proposition without having to re-invent themselves. Indeed, Advisers are uniquely placed to provide this service to their clients but you can bet if you don’t take the opportunity then someone else will.
Research from Gallup and Wells Fargo shows few investors are comfortable letting a machine handle all their investments; only 6% would trust this to be delivered by robo-advice whereas 40% said they want financial advice mostly from a human adviser but with a digital component and another 27% said they want digital tools mostly but with access to a human adviser as needed, the survey found.
Advisers should consider how digital services can add value to their current proposition rather than automate the advice itself. Obvious examples are reporting, fact-finding, document sharing and secure communications all of which many of your clients would prefer to be delivered digitally both for convenience and to assuage their growing green conscience.
So now you'd like to find out how digital can supercharge your business; register for our next moneyinfo webinar and we’ll show you how to deliver a beautiful, automated, digital experience for your clients whilst removing cost from your current operating model.
Sim Sangha
Business Development Director
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