Fluido

Jul 8, 2022

8th July 20228:12 am Advisers are at odds with investment providers over online portal technology and there is little chance this will change soon. A new report by NextWealth for Fluido (a Salesforce consulting partner) shows that most providers expect advisers to communicate with them via email and telephone. This is particularly true for legacy business yet advisers want to shift toward online portals. In fact, 41% of them named online portals as their preferred communication channel with providers in future. But providers’ plans differ from advisers’ needs as the report found that providers’ future servicing options remain virtually unchanged. NextWealth managing director Heather Hopkins said: “The report makes essential reading for any provider whose business is linked to the financial advice sector. “Advisers are increasingly frustrated at the time it takes them to transact with providers and it is having a significant effect on their bottom line. “Providers need to listen to what advisers want and invest in systems that align, rather than offering outdated communication channels that are a drain on productivity.” The research identified areas where portals might need investment to close the gap. That includes updating portal functionality to reduce the need for manual clarification and confirmation. It also involves updating case management functionality. This is to provide realistic timeframes, especially for error resolution and service requests. Portals should have the ability to securely share data to certain roles and functions within an organisation. The report also found that poor provider tech is costing advisers time and money. For instance, advisers are spending an average of 30 hours a month on manual tasks. They also spend over a day a month collating data for client reporting and examining outputs from investment planning tools. On average, advisers spend 28 hours per month on manual tasks. That is equivalent to around four days. In addition, one fifth of advisers spend a day or more on hold to providers every month. Fluido global industry lead for financial services Duncan Muir said: “Our report highlights that financial advice businesses plan to recruit operations and admin staff to manage manual tasks, rather than invest in client-facing advisers who can spend time with more clients, improving the scale of firms and creating more productive jobs. “Worryingly, our report finds that providers have little in the pipeline to address the issues, which is likely to have a negative impact on overall productivity in the financial advice sector.” The research was based on survey data from 100 UK-based financial advisers. It also used interviews and data gathered from 11 investment providers.