Technology is impacting all aspects of our lives. A recent Stanford University study found that 39% of people surveyed met their spouse through a dating website; tech is having a similar impact on the financial advice industry.
Investors are seeking increasingly faster, more frequent, personalized communications from financial advisors about their investments. To meet the demand, more advisors are optimizing their use of technology.
According to multiple industry surveys, three key trends have emerged that may help advisors stay competitive in 2020.
Video conferencing technology for meetings
A recent FPA survey noted several areas that may warrant a sharper focus in the year ahead. Among them: finding new ways to reach clients. Many clients are embracing video conferencing as a convenient way to “meet” and receive updates. Video conferencing also enables advisors to provide more frequent briefings.
Websites such as Zoom and GoToMeeting make it easy for advisors to conduct video conferences without having to worry about setting up cameras and coordinating participants, all at little to no expense. In addition, advisors use podcasts and YouTube to connect with clients.
An October 2019 CNBC Financial article discusses how advisors are leveraging conferencing websites and YouTube to interact with clients more frequently and more effectively.
Blogs and client portals
With an infinite amount of financial data available online, many clients want to monitor their investments in real time. Some request daily updates from advisors, creating the need to aggregate the information quickly and communicate with clients.
For advisors, offering a client portal is becoming a necessity. Large firms typically offer their own client portal. Some advisors access online sites such as Mint.com or financial planning software like eMoney Advisor to provide the portal experience.
Financial Advisor 100 discusses how many advisors are using blogs and client portals to enhance the relationship with clients.
Digital tools
Most advisors already use digital tools. Tools have progressed beyond the traditional CRM to include more in-depth analysis such as risk assessment and portfolio management. Financial Planning’s 2019 Tech Survey noted that 83% of advisors use portfolio management tools and 73% use tools for risk management.
For advisors, digital tools can be helpful in creating portfolios and client reports more efficiently. Selecting the right tool is key to managing tasks within time constraints.
FundVisualizer combines the latest data from Morningstar with a powerful feature set of capabilities. It enables advisors to quickly compare over 30,000 mutual funds, including ETFs and indexes, and model portfolios across approximately 80 performance and risk metrics, all for free.
FundVisualizer’s PDF Creator also makes it easy to generate shareholder-approved reports to share with clients.
To get a better understanding of how to create custom reports with PDF Creator, view this video.
To explore additional capabilities, visit www.fundvisualizer.com.