4 important areas top advice firms will invest in to meet client demands in 2023
By AdviceBridge
It’s the time of year when you may be thinking about setting goals to grow your financial planning firm in 2023. But what areas of your business should you be focusing on to do this?
Last year, we identified virtual assistant chatbots as one of the key upgrades that would help advice firms improve their service offering and keep pace with the communication preferences of millennials. You might have noticed that this is now a ubiquitous feature of top financial planning websites and other industries too.
So now that chatbots have become so commonplace, what is the next area of focus that will help you to stay ahead of the crowd? Read on to find out.
1. Building relationships with younger generations of potential clients
The “Great Wealth Transfer” refers to the estimated £5.5 trillion that is expected to pass from baby boomers to millennials over the next 30 years. This phenomenon will require advice firms to support existing clients in their estate planning over the coming years.
Unfortunately, the continuation of the client relationships that you may have been building for many years is not guaranteed. This means that the top advice firms will be proactively working to ensure that they build intergenerational relationships with their clients’ loved ones.
Investing time into marketing your services to a millennial and Gen Z audience, and building relationships with the individuals who are due to inherit the funds you currently oversee should pay off.
If you are successful, investing now could ensure that future generations continue to make the most of their wealth to build happy, healthy lives.
AdviceBridge makes financial advice attractive to a younger audience
The AdviceBridge platform is designed with younger accumulating clients in mind who want to be able to use an efficient digital interface. Our app instantly connects your clients to their financial futures, and they can access the information they need 24/7.
2. Digital onboarding
Digital onboarding was one of the areas we wrote about in 2022, but we have included it again here as its importance is only increasing.
As more millennials and Gen Z-ers look set to inherit large sums from their parents and grandparents in the coming decades, it makes sense that they will soon be looking for help managing their money. This means it’s important that your systems are set up for these tech-savvy generations.
As CFP Board notes, Gen Z has grown up with virtually unlimited access to the internet and social media, and are used to receiving the information they need instantly. Unlike previous generations, they can learn everything they need to know about a particular financial product or concept from a short video.
This can be a double-edged sword. Research by Vericast revealed that 34% of Gen Z-ers have taken financial advice from TikTok rather than a qualified financial adviser.
AdviceBridge automates the onboarding process, freeing up time
AdviceBridge is designed to integrate seamlessly with your existing systems to make the onboarding process more efficient. It automates previously time-consuming tasks so that you have more time to spend serving your clients and giving them the advice they need to be able to achieve their goals.
3. Consumer Duty
Consumer Duty is a new set of rules created by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) that state that all financial planning firms must prioritise delivering good outcomes for retail clients. The goal of this is to improve outcomes for clients in four key areas:
- Communications
- Product design
- Customer service
- Price and value.
The design and implementation of these four areas must demonstrate that the firm:
- Acts in good faith toward retail clients
- Avoids foreseeable harm to retail customers
- Enables and supports retail clients to pursue their financial objectives.
Of course, the best advice firms will already be using these principles as guidance for their practice.
After all, any firm that does not communicate clearly with their clients or who charges unfairly would soon see clients choosing to work with competitors.
But the introduction of Consumer Duty means that you must now be able to show evidence that you are following its principles.
Investing in systems and software as well as clearly documented processes will be an increasingly important part of compliance in 2023 and beyond.
AdviceBridge keeps all of the necessary information in one place
AdviceBridge is designed to hold all of the necessary information in an easy-to-use dashboard. There is a separate dashboard for you, the adviser, and your client, so that you can see everything you need in one place. This makes information and recommendations clear to your client, so that they know exactly what they can spend now and in retirement each month.
4. Robotic process automation
A big part of improving your service offering and growing your business is removing the repetitive tasks from the to-do list of your planners and paraplanners so that they can focus on delivering a high-quality, personalised service to your clients.
By upgrading your systems to automate these processes, you free up time for your staff so that they can add more value elsewhere. You also make it much easier to comply with FCA regulations as well as your own company regulations.
AdviceBridge automates the most appropriate tasks for you
Choosing which tasks to automate can be tricky, especially when you first get started. You want automation to make your life easier, and the client’s experience better, but you don’t want to risk compromising on the quality of your service offering.
That’s where AdviceBridge comes in. We’ve identified the areas of a practice that can easily be automated – such as the fact-find during client onboarding and compilation of client reviews – so that you can focus on the higher value tasks like building relationships with your clients and helping them to understand their finances.
Get in touch
If you want to find out how AdviceBridge can benefit your business and your clients, please get in touch. Email hello@advicebridge.com, book a demo, or call us on 020 3925 3850.
