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Digital is Not Disruption for Top Wealth Advisors

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PwC in its 2016 study ranked wealth management as one of the least tech-literate sectors in the financial services industry. Even it becomes more challenging when you account for the reality that high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) are the exact opposite. They are notably digitally literate.

Digital technology will drive the growth of financial management industry and even high-net-worth individuals are not unknown to this fact. It is employed by several HNWIs on a large scale to closely meet their immediate financial and wealth management needs. PwC findings strongly support the role digital technology can play in coming years for the industry. Some of highlights of the report are given below:

Two-thirds (69%) of the HNWIs use online and mobile banking Over 40% use online means to review their portfolio or investment markets Over a third is using online services for portfolio management HNWI investors grade advisory firms based on their digital experience —63% say that the quality of the online interface influences how satisfied they are with their wealth advisor.

The demand for finance related technology is surprisingly similar across younger and older HNWIs—one exception being portfolio management where under-45s are markedly more interested in managing investments online. Those big numbers are poised to increase at breakneck speed as wealth transfers to the enormous and tech-native millennial population.

Are you ready?

Does your firm perceive digital resources like robotic automation processes (RPA) and artificial intelligence (AI) as disruption or consider them as a catalyst which can accelerate the growth and competitive positioning of your advisory? If you choose former, then you must go back and read the above statistics again.

Digital channels, data and analysis tools, automation, and machine learning are not at the forefront of technological development for an industry that’s been operating behind the curve today. They are merely a mode to gain competitive advantage. Young clients will give weightage to the advisors who can offer them modern experience, profound insights, and swift responses over those burdened by old-school paper-based methods.

The value of adopting digital is obvious. And yet, the industry lags. Catching up with the new technologies might seem daunting until you learn how the right partner can simplify the process and positively impact the RoI.

Optimizing Business Processes

What happens in the back office drives operations, strategy, productivity, and more. The deciding factor for the organization growth will be the extent to which its leaders can eliminate redundancies, automate tactical demands, and equip their professionals to work more effectively. By integrating automation technologies and data storage systems into the back-end operations, firms can automate the tedious tasks and can prioritize higher level work that has a direct impact on their profitability. Optimizing the business process will also raise the data security and will minimize the threat of client’s data loss due to human error.

Business improvement through automation: Robotics Process Automation (RPA) involves bots capable of processing transactions, triggering responses, and interacting with other systems across the entire process chain. It automates (and thus removes) repetitive and mundane tasks. You gain an around-the-clock virtual workforce that streamlines and speeds operations, improves accuracy, and transforms data into powerful insights.

For many companies, Artificial Intelligence (AI) empowers automation and machine learning. Coforge is a leader in AI. Through a partnership with Arago, a pioneer in AI and a leader in autonomous automation, our clients benefit from greater agility, finding answers to ambiguous and complex problems that impact every level of operations.

Outreach and Marketing

Promote your team from data producers to information users. Equipped with a rich source of dependable analytics, your marketing and sales team members (and perhaps your advisors as well) will enhance their capacity and bandwidth to pursue and onboard clients with better-value strategic support.

Machine learning improves investment advice: Machine Learning (ML) represents a competitive advantage for wealth advisors as industry adoption rates have been low. ML offers you an edge in accurately forecasting the investment outcomes by using AI algorithms to assess historical data in current and future context. Your clients are future-focused, so they are more likely to be confident about investment decisions backed by predictive research.

A Great Customer Experience

Let’s go back to the beginning and recall what you read in this research. 63% say that the quality of the online interface influences how satisfied they are with their wealth advisor? Digital technologies also galvanize the customer experience. It gets nurtured through relationship. A seamless mix of instant gratification and personal care are the pillars to an unparalleled customer experience.

Control and Care through Intelligent Voice Control Solutions

Your digital presence (website or mobile app) will go a long way to put information and control into the hands of your clients. The possibilities of meeting the next phase of customer experience are quite higher. Natural Language Processing (NLP) solutions like Alexa, Siri, and Google Voice are even more instant and impactful way to tap into depths of information. Coforge’ voice assistant and intelligent voice control solutions integrate smoothly with existing platforms—showing your clients a higher level of innovation and care by making their experience even more modern and useful.

For wealth advisors, the objectives are clear: drive optimization and process improvement, and support a rich pipeline of high-value investment clients. Until now, several industry leaders have tried to achieve these goals through old school techniques. Firms who will effectively implement automation and data technologies across the organization will emerge as market leaders. Automation will expand their ability to offer resilience, security, and responsiveness to their clients demand. Digital is not a disruption. It’s a demand. We can help you meet it.

Gautam Samanta
Gautam Samanta

Gautam Samanta is the EVP and Global Head of BFS. In his role, he is responsible for spearheading the Company's growth globally for the BFS vertical and manage client relationships in the Europe region. He is based in London. With over 24 years of experience, Gautam comes with a deep understanding of the technology and business consulting landscape acquired through working in a leading financial services institution, a leading software product company as well as two large global consulting and technology services organizations. He has extensive knowledge in driving business transformation, outsourcing, IT and Ops strategy, innovation and sustainability and is highly experienced in complex large deal structuring, creative commercial models and deal negotiation.

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