Some advisors were already building their virtual work capabilities to meet regulatory requirements—their ability to plan during natural disasters—so they had already made remote working and videoconferencing arrangements. But others were doing it to create scale and efficiency, or to meet demands from their clients to offer more options for working virtually.
“Now, both advisors and clients are getting more comfortable working digitally, and I expect that it’s something that will stick,” Wilkinson said.
The outbreak has caused advisors to digitalize further in both their front and back offices. Michael Carvin, the CEO and co-founder of SmartAsset, a personal finance education platform that offers marketing opportunities for advisors, says advisors are also looking to technology as a new way to prospect for clients.
“Market volatility is affecting the consumer view on retirement, and that’s at the top of their minds,” Carvin says. “A lot of small business owners are thinking about different strategies and are considering working with a financial advisor to make sure they’re leveraging the stimulus and are being tax-efficient.”
Online Meetings
For a time this spring, the internet was the only forum on which most advisors, clients, prospects and vendors could interact, and thus one of the only places to access new leads, nurture them and transform them into clients. The pandemic also prompted some advisors to throw in the towel on managing assets, says Eric Clarke, CEO of Orion Advisor Services.
“We’re seeing an increase in the level of outsourced asset management that advisors are taking advantage of” on the Orion platform, Clarke says. “More are now leveraging third-party strategists and professional asset managers to take care of their client portfolios for them.”
But the quality and depth of technology offerings available to advisors have also greatly improved in recent years, says Greg Vigrass, president of Folio Institutional, making possible a “bionic advisor” capable of comprehensively serving a client across multiple communication media and from any location.
While a lot of attention has been paid to the development of artificial intelligence in the financial services sector, the real story is the improving user experience for both advisors and the end clients, Vigrass says.
“Financial services have been laggards in technology, but they’re now taking advantage of the tried and true technology that other industries have implemented well,” he says. “They’re looking at consumer trends and how people want to engage, and I think the industry is trying to borrow a page from some people who have done online exceptionally well, like retail and banking. Going online is not just about cost savings from being virtual, but the convenience to the consumer.”
Folio has become a proponent of using digital advice as a client acquisition and onboarding tool. Rather than building a robo-advisor, the company is rolling out a platform that will allow its RIA clients to custom-build their own robo-advisors that can serve clients with highly customized planning and investment solutions, targeting multiple goals and encompassing impact investing features.