The Digital Revolution in Financial Planning – Coming Soon to a Place Near You
Reflecting back over the last fifteen months, it’s become critically apparent that the fallout from COVID has had a profound impact on the lives of many people all over the world with national lockdowns driving people to change the way they work, and alternative methods of client communication being the new norm.
The pandemic has also contributed to one of the most significant increases in online technology usage for decades and the immediate challenge for financial advice businesses across the UK is to rapidly adapt their systems, processes and people to cater for the unquenching thirst of clients that are demanding new digital efficiencies and information to help them make an informed choice.
Coupled with the current advice gap that currently exists in the UK, the new technology gap in financial planning will potentially increase the minimum ‘cost to serve clients’ as businesses evaluate the costs of utilising third-party providers or updating their existing in-house processes, which will undoubtedly have a flow on effect to the end user.
Keith Richards the outgoing CEO of the Personal Finance Society in the UK recently highlighted the challenges to profitability financial advisers in the UK now face when he stated “Financial advisers have had to adapt to the new normal created by measures to slow the spread of Covid-19 at lightning speed(3).
Updating IT processes to cope with the new normal way of working was seen as the greatest issue faced in the year ahead by one in five of the financial advisers polled.
Keith stated that “The pace of change shows no sign of slowing down in 2021 and will bring new business risks but also many opportunities to continue to rethink old ways of working, drive greater efficiencies and develop new methods of engaging with clients.”
Developing new ways of working has now become a strategic priority for many advice practices that wish to keep up with the speed of online usage, and importantly, retain and attract new customers in the future.
Attracting new customers will require out of the box thinking, especially when you take into account the future generational needs of clients who require more information.
Indeed, there is a growing body of evidence through organisations such as McKinsey(1) and Herosmyth(2) to substantiate that the future generational needs of clients such as Generation Z’s who will require more online information so they may make informed choices and decisions.
With the perfect storm of technological and generational change in the financial services industry, rapidly adapting your business to the new norms of digital technology will be an essential part of your continuity planning.
This article was authored by Fintuity’s COO, Tony Beaven. To contact Tony please email tony.beavan@fintuity.com.
About Fintuity
Fintuity are one of the UK’s only online, low cost, digital alternatives to traditional financial services. Authorised and Regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, we aim to help people plan, protect and take control of their financial well-being. In the current climate, helping clients plan for their future is more important than ever with over 14 million people in the UK not receiving advice when they should be.
We use advanced technology to work remotely with our client base while offering the traditional range of face to face, IFA services including advice in investments, pensions, protection, mortgages and overall financial structuring to an increasing number of clients that seek a digital alternative. For more information please visit www.fintuity.com.
