Technology’s role in deepening adviser-client relationships

Advisers face complex challenges as they seek to build relationships with clients who increasingly…

Advisers face complex challenges as they seek to build relationships with clients who increasingly rely on web-based technology in many areas of their lives. Although long-lasting relationships always depend on providing clients with effective investment services, this goal can be facilitated, or hindered, by the technology advisers use.

This is true when working with established, perhaps older, clients, but it is especially salient for new investors who have grown up accustomed to having access to instant, direct, and comprehensive online services.

There are now technology offerings that enable advisers to access comprehensive, back-office capabilities and effective end-to-end solutions. These suites of interconnected portfolio accounting services not only can deliver significant gains in client satisfaction, but they can also improve efficiency, compliance, and overall profitability for the adviser. In addition, the new products increasingly offer mobile capabilities, affording both clients and advisers access to the platform via apps on their smartphones and tablets.

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Clients can now receive their financial data updated as of the last market close. They can see all their accounts, even across multiple custodians, without having to log on to numerous sites. They can instantly run performance reports and access any other relevant reports, tax information, and market analyses at any time of the day or night. And they can be assured that their data and communications are sent through secure client portals, a benefit that is especially important in light of events such as the massive Target identity theft.

Providing “one-stop shopping,” new technologies integrate performance reporting, billing, rebalancing and trading software with online client portals and enterprise-level client relationship management (CRM) systems. More specifically, both advisers and clients can benefit from advances in:
• Client-centric communications, with on-demand dynamic performance reporting and an online storage vault for secure document exchange with clients
• Enhanced advisory services, with model management, portfolio monitoring, trading, real-time pricing, post-trade reconciliation, tax-loss harvesting, rebalancing and trade automation
• Simplified client engagement, providing a central integration point for servicing clients, with pre-packaged workflows, operations automation, business development, client setup, client management, and business intelligence

Advisers can customize the technology to create branded platforms that better target their audiences. This can include tailored choices of investment products, intuitive navigation and custom reports. With some of the new platforms, client dashboards can also be personalized to provide account views that answer many questions currently directed to an adviser’s operations team. One screen, for example, could show holdings, account balances, available cash, and allocations.

Although portal technology has been evolving for the last few years, the latest integrated versions are particularly attractive to clients seeking more secure and simplified online communications and document exchanges. Clients can access a secure portal and view all their documents, including quarterly and annual performance reports, billing invoices, and forms requiring signatures.

(Also Read: Technology’s transformative power for RIAs)

Clients can also receive real-time account updates and documents, including tax documents, from outside custodians within the adviser-provided portal. This not only gives them all their financial information in one place, but benefits the adviser by keeping clients on their own system. Clients no longer have to log onto a custodian’s website to access information — and, in the process, get bombarded by the custodian’s marketing.

Many of the costs of producing printed materials can be reduced with web-based platforms, as can the number of staff hours spent stapling, collating, packaging, and mailing materials. As a result, advisers have additional time and resources they can use to deepen their relationships with existing clients and reach out to new ones. With an online platform, advisers can also see exactly which clients are receiving different documents, and even when a client most recently accessed their personal portal, ensuring even greater responsiveness and accountability.

Successful advisers will increasingly be those who use leading-edge technology to proactively respond to their clients. Not all advisory firms have moved to fully integrated web-based technologies, and indeed, many are still stuck on the old paper trail. But those advisers that implement the new technology can more efficiently respond to the needs of their clients, and thus build more rewarding practices.

Stuart DePina is group president of Envestnet | Tamarac, a division of Envestnet, Inc, a provider of integrated, web based portfolio and client management software for independent advisers and wealth managers.