“So how can communication between advisors and clients be better?” she asked.
One solution cited was to improve efficiency.
Richard Walker, CEO and co-founder of Quik!, explained that he started the company in 2002 to help make advisors more efficient—specifically, to help them spend less time on paperwork.
He gave an example. Before Quik!, he worked for an advisory firm that doubled its assets under management in a single year during a bear market. It did this by pointing out to clients how many different accounts they had within the same household. One by one, he said, clients asked if they could consolidate. “This meant more of their business went to our advisory practice,” said Walker.
The lesson of this anecdote, he added, is that better client engagement is the way to succeed during a down market. “If you can do more to engage with clients, it will lead to more action,” he said.
And to become more efficient in your client engagements, he added, you have to have the right digital tools.
Philipp Hecker, CEO of Bento Engine, spoke next. His company provides technology integration, with specific compliance-ready advisor-client content for CRM platforms. At 15 different points in the life of every client, he said, there are important financial decisions to be made—from getting a first job at age 14 to taking required minimum distributions at age 72.
But outside of annual portfolio reviews, advisors often lose touch with their clients. So Bento takes client information that’s already in an advisor’s database and suggests life event points when the advisor might reach out to each client. It then suggests specific vetted content that can be tailored to each client.
“Particularly in down markets, engaging with clients proactively can provide opportunities for you to deliver value that’s beneficial for everybody,” he said.