Most Financial Advisors recognize that technology is essential to stay competitive in the coming years. 59% of Advisors believe tech is the primary driver of innovation in the industry. In comparison, 51% currently say they would like to find an organization with better technology.
But which technology should they be looking for? And how can they select the most powerful tools?
This article explores the most impactful tech solutions that will help Advisors improve their client service, reduce their own workload, and grow their business faster.
Why Do Financial Advisors Need Technology?
There are two core ways Advisors benefit from technology:
1. Retaining clients
Advisors need technology to maintain and grow their client lists. This comes down to two key factors:
- Client expectations: A growing number of clients expect their Advisors to use advanced technology. Improved technology is the most cited strategy Advisors use to attract younger clients through online client portals and modern communication methods.
- Holistic view of client’s assets: Modern technology solutions can aggregate data from anywhere allowing for Advisors to showcase a fill display of their clients’ total wealth portfolio; including real estate, alternative investments, estate plans, will and trusts, 401(k) plans, and more.
2. Freeing up time
Nearly 50% of clients wish their Advisor communicated with them more. However, with the pressures of daily operations and administrative duties, Advisors often lack the time to focus on client service.
Technology can help address this issue by reducing the workload for Advisors. From back-office automation to quicker access to client insights, the tech stack can save Advisors valuable time each week, allowing them to focus more on their clients.
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“No other firm had approached me about how to grow my practice and how to leverage technology to make it more efficient” – Chris Wedell
Read Chris’s RFG Advisory Story
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Four Tools Every Advisor Needs
1. Investment Management Platform
An investment management platform allows Advisors to oversee and manage investments using a single tool. This dramatically reduces the complexity of managing investments across multiple platforms, with data silos that can lead to suboptimal decision making and wasted time.
2. Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
A customer relationship management (CRM) system is a hub for all client insights. With the ability to quickly store, access and analyze information about individual clients, Advisors can:
- Improve communication: Gain insights to tailor message to a particular client’s needs, desires and interests.
- Increase engagement: Identify information and trends in which an individual is interested, enabling more frequent and relevant communication.
- Prepare for meetings: Access quick reminders of important insights before meeting with a client.
These factors contribute to an improved client experience and may enhance client retention.
3. Operations Support
Operational technology covers a wide range of solutions, from RegTech tools that improve and automate compliance procedures to back-office tools that streamline and automate repetitive administrative tasks.
With the right collection of these tools, Advisors can significantly reduce the operational burden while often increasing the speed and accuracy of paperwork or compliance measures.
4. Marketing and Sales
From digital marketing automation to pipeline visibility, Advisors need tools that help them amplify their brand and service delivery and communicate effectively with a range of prospects, leads and existing customers.
However, marketing and sales tools are often disconnected and complicated to use – which is why selecting the best solutions on the market is essential to driving new business growth.
Three Challenges Advisors Face When Using Technology
1. Choosing the Right Vendors
Advisors have enough on their place without endless technology research and due diligence. All four categories of tech we discuss above are large, growing markets meaning there are near-endless vendors vying for Advisors’ attention.
Worse still, the process can get more confusing as you research solutions because you get targeted ads for other solutions. These risks leave Advisors with decision fatigue, where they choose a suboptimal solution because they just want the process to be finished.
2. Training Staff
Technology is valuable only if you and your team use it. However, due to the complexity of many Advisory tech stacks, utilization rates can be extremely low, which makes it an extremely expensive waste. Many Advisors may find it challenging to allocate time or possess the expertise needed to provide comprehensive tech training for their employees.
3. Tech Support
Tech issues are almost inevitable with a large tech stack, which can create challenges for many Advisors. Without dedicated tech support, even relatively minor issues can cause a lot of friction for tech-enabled teams – leading many Advisors to lose hours each week.
Leveraging Technology as a Strategic Advantage with RFG Advisory
While the challenges discussed above are significant, various strategies can help in managing them effectively. RFG Advisory has developed an end-to-end support system for Advisors, allowing those who partner with us to:
- Choose suitable vendors: Our expert team has carefully conducted due diligence to identify solutions that can have a meaningful impact for Advisors.
- Access top-tier training: Our dedicated practice consulting team offers comprehensive training to help you and your team confidently utilize the solutions we provide.
- Resolve issues faster: Our seasoned team provides timely tech support aimed at reducing delays and promoting smoother operations.
Want to explore how we could help you build the business of your dreams – without compromise?