Have the robots won? Are we flocking to robots and ditching humans?
Fast forward 18 months and, not surprisingly, human advisers are still with us, and quite possibly in a stronger position than they have been for decades. Turns out that robo-advice is a real opportunity for human advisers. Who would have thought?
Recent research from Swiss financial research company MyPrivateBanking reveals that the most rapid gains are being made by wealth managers who are embracing robo-technology to drive efficiency and scale in their businesses and engagement with their clients.
These human, robo-loving advisers are at the forefront of the digital wave sweeping the industry. According to the research, these hybrid advisers will manage 10 per cent of global investible wealth by 2025, some US$16.7 trillion, while it is estimated that pure robo-advisers will manage just 1.6 per cent.
The embracing of robo-technology will profoundly change the industry
Look under the hood of robo-advice and what we see is a bigger wave of technological innovation in the financial services industry, which has sadly lacked substantive innovation for the last couple of decades. This technology change delivers exciting opportunities for the advice industry to transform through:
1. Driving scale, efficiency – manual and semi-automated processes such as fact finds, risk profiling and optimising investment strategies will reduce costs and speed up the advice discovery and delivery process.
2. Time and geographical boundaries are being torn down – forget the need to drive to meetings, fight traffic or wait for clients to be in town. Rapid advances and the acceptance of video-based technology, digital signing, secure transfer of documentation and customer identify verification are re-defining the office.
3. Enhanced transparency – improvements in customer portals and apps create an opportunity for transparency and engagement. This does not mean just allowing a client to view their portfolio, but delivering relevant, contextual information about achieving their goals and the risks they are taking.
4. Rapid and efficient communication – developing a community, the use of private chat, social media, video sharing, video blogs or one-on-one video meetings on the move, all dramatically speed up communication and lower the cost of delivery.
5. Enhanced controls and regulatory compliance – the automation of processes that don’t require judgement, but require sound algorithmic logic, eliminates the potential for errors. Video records and digital histories of meetings will prove to be a more robust protection for both parties than meeting notes translated to a SOA over many weeks, while the context of the discussion is lost over time.
Taking advantage of technology and embracing these opportunities enable the adviser to build relationships, develop trust and act as the client’s financial guide, which is exactly what we want them to be doing.
Ian Dunbar is the chief executive of SuiteBox and director and co-founder of Afiniation.
Financial advisers can’t get enough technology
Headlines such as ‘Robo-advisers are here. What’s a human financial planner to do?’ (The Washington Post) and ‘Why worry? Human advisers are on the way out’ (The Sydney Morning Herald) are stoking the anxieties of many in the advice industry.
Blogs | 17 October 2016 | Ian Dunbar <
Blogs
|
