For all the talk of robo-advice as the next frontier of automation for financial advisory firms, the reality is perhaps even more important but less immediately glamorous. While becoming a “bionic advisor” by adding robo capabilities may eventually prove to be a game changer for many independent advisors, the fact is that many practices still have more obvious—and much more valuable—opportunities to increase their operations’ efficiency by automating certain key processes and practices.

As a bonus, many of these opportunities are “low-hanging fruit”—easily implemented changes that produce quick, outsized benefits for advisors who capitalize on them. The fact that independent advisors enjoy more flexibility, especially relative to their wirehouse peers, only enhances their ability to make practice improvements, since they can work with multiple vendors and implement their own technology platforms (within their respective broker-dealers’ parameters).

Some of these ideas will sound familiar to advisors, and may even be on the list of practice upgrades they hope to make “someday.” But given the pressures created by the fiduciary rule, which has put a premium on understanding the needs of clients and making best-interest recommendations, advisors should work now to simplify activities that divert their attention from building that understanding.

These challenges were discussed before our annual national conference held this week in La Jolla, Calif., where a group of top advisors, industry thought leaders and firm executives came together during a pre-conference session to discuss top ways to automate practices without having to become a full-fledged bionic advisor. Here are the top three ideas they came up with:   

1. Digital Reporting And e-Signature: Going The Last Mile. Even in 2017, with all the emphasis that has been placed on innovative “fintech” solutions in our industry, there are still investors across many advisors’ books who insist on conducting business via paper documents, both for receiving statements and for providing signatures on various forms.

Before the fiduciary era, advisors could afford to make exceptions for these clients, continuing to send them paper statements and paper copies of important account documents. Going forward, however, advisors will need to use their time as efficiently as possible to satisfy regulators while providing exceptional service to every investor in their books. Advisors who may have been putting off some difficult conversations need to educate these clients on why going digital now makes sense.

2. Asset Aggregation Tools: No Longer Just ‘Nice to Have.’ Going hand-in-hand with the need for full digitization, tools that provide advisors with an aggregated view of their clients’ various assets across multiple institutions will soon make the leap from “convenient option” to “absolute necessity” as demands on advisors’ time become more intense.

Advisors across the industry still frequently report having to spend significant time with clients who have assets held outside the advisor’s institution in order to develop a comprehensive view of those assets and, accordingly, an accurate picture of the client’s financial needs. This kind of time drain should be easily avoidable given the asset aggregation tools that are available to advisors and broker-dealers today.

Advisors in this situation would be well-served to work with their broker-dealers to integrate into their practices data aggregation tools that will enable them to develop a single, holistic view of their clients’ assets on a scalable basis. If an advisor’s firm does not already offer such a solution, it may be time to ask for one in more forceful terms.

3. Social Media Works—And It’s Evolving. While it’s common to joke that once your grandmother joins a social media service it’s no longer cool, the opposite is actually true for financial advisors. More and more viable client demographics have begun to make social media their preferred means of communication—not simply a way to pass the time or look up old friends.

Although advisors have been inundated with reports and speeches about the value of social media to their practices, many still are not using it effectively, or worse, have given up on it. These advisors are missing out on a tremendously important means of connecting with not just their clients, but also their clients’ heirs.

Additionally, social media presents a highly effective tool for automating communications with clients, prospective clients and others. Various applications can enable advisors to send compliance-approved content and messages to multiple clients or client groups across multiple social media platforms at scheduled intervals. Again, if an advisor’s broker-dealer does not currently offer such tools, advisors owe it to themselves and their businesses to make their needs known.

Despite the massive regulatory changes taking place across the industry, advisors can take comfort in knowing that one thing has not changed: the more time they invest in getting to know their clients and their needs, the better positioned their practices will be to succeed going forward. Taking advantage of the resources offered by your broker-dealer to capitalize on low-hanging-fruit opportunities to automate key business processes and practices is one immediate and highly effective way advisors can move closer to this goal.

Kiliaen Ludlow is senior vice president of relationship management at Triad Advisors, the Atlanta-based, hybrid advisor-focused independent broker-dealer.