Wealth managers wondering how their practices stack up against those of their peers finally have an answer. Asset manager Invesco announced Wednesday it will be teaming up with market consultant Cerulli Associates to offer the Practice Innovation Index, a digital analytic tool that benchmarks key traits and characteristics of financial practices.
The companies say their benchmarking methodology leverages more than a decade’s worth of Cerulli survey data to analyze how a practice ranks among its peers across four primary areas: business development, wealth management, client service and practice management. The resulting data will provide a customized road map that wealth managers can use to overcome barriers in growing their businesses.
According to a recent Cerulli study, advisers most commonly identify new client acquisition (52%), compliance (40%) and managing technology (30%) as their primary challenges. The Practice Innovation Index, which is part of Invesco’s Total CX platform, evaluates a financial practice with the goal of identifying its relative strengths and opportunities regardless of the firm’s assets under management or revenue.
“Advisers today face the challenges of addressing demands from investors, financial markets and regulators, all while striving to scale their businesses,” said Asher Cheses, associate director of U.S. wealth management at Cerulli. “To help them confront those business challenges, Cerulli and Invesco built the Practice Innovation Index to provide a quantifiable tool designed to benchmark the attributes of the industry’s leading financial practices and ultimately enable advisers to help their clients achieve their financial goals.”
The Practice Innovation Index starts with the wealth manager completing a 35-question online survey. The results are then benchmarked in four key areas against Cerulli’s data from more than 3,000 financial professionals, as well as in aggregate. Finally, financial professionals are offered a customized road map designed to leverage their strengths and address opportunities for improvement.
Invesco says wealth managers with more complex financial practices could also be eligible for access to dedicated coaches to help create plans.
“Financial professionals’ practices are faced with increasing business complexity and client demands,” said John McDonough, head of U.S. wealth management intermediaries distribution at Invesco. “Invesco is committed to being their partner of choice, working to help them strengthen their practices so that they can focus on their clients.”
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