When the pandemic forced much of its advisors and staff to work from home, LPL Financial found itself ready because of some of the technological enhancements it had made in recent years.
Now, taking stock of the ongoing Covid-19 crisis and it response at its annual Focus conference, which was held virtually last week, two LPL leaders see technology evolving to meet the needs of advisors who will continue to work virtually and the demands of a public whose preferences are shifting towards more digital channels of communication.
“To me, it’ss about adopting new technology that helps you to do things digitally that you once did in person and ultimately will give you back hours in your day,” said Kirby Horan-Adams, LPL’s executive vice president, investor and investment solutions. “I think the Covid era has caused us to shift how we think about technology. We used to say ‘what new tool do I have to learn today?’ but now we say ‘what technology can help me with what I need to differently in this era of social distancing?’”
Many of the enhancements making it easier for advisors to work digitally are subtle, she noted, like making sure data pre-populates across all of an advisor’s technology and tools and including checks to reduce the chances that documents and applications are sent back due to missing or incorrect information.
One of the most important technologies advisors relied on during periods of working from home was instant messaging services, said Horan-Adams.
“A key component of day-to-day interactions in the office is definitely interoffice instant messaging or IM,” she said. “It makes it easier for you to stay connected with your team whether you’re working at home, on the road or even 10 feet away from each other in the office.”
LPL recently struck a deal with Slack to offer its advisors compliant interoffice messaging, piloting the new service with 10 firms.
Another key component for advisors, according to Horan-Adams, is e-signatures, another area where LPL is announcing new enhancements.
“All of the most-used LPL forms are available for e-sig so you don’t have to bother with printing, mailing, FedExing, stapling, all of that good stuff,” she said. “E-signature documents can be completed faster with less chance of NIGOs (documents ‘not in good order’), and it’s easier to track the status of them and store them. Especially in times where we’re not meeting face-to-face as much, and who knows what germs are on those envelopes in our mailboxes, e-sig is an important tool.”
But one problem with e-signature is that there are often multiple documents that clients need to sign, which as of right now necessitates that separate emails for each are sent by the advisor to their clients, said Horan-Adams.