The AdviserTech Show

Who’s afraid of the big, bad technology adoption? | How Advisers have used technology over time | S2 E6

Adam Leci and Sandra Paul from Prestwood Software discuss how different technologies have made their way into the financial sector, as well as how consumers generally expect free technology to be adopted and to make things easier, rather than be expensive and complicated.

Sandra elaborates on how gradually over time, the demand for Advisers to learn new technologies has increased. For example after Covid, tech was used a lot more for advisers to communicate with clients and bring them into the planning process, and Prestwood was also setting up user groups and webinars during and after Covid to train advisers on how to use Zoom, DocuSign, and Document sharing.

Adam Leci is a Technical Consultant and writes blogs and articles for Prestwood, whilst Sandra Paul is a PR and Communications expert who specialises in PR and marketing for Prestwood. Prestwood have been offering lifelong Cashflow modelling software since 1984, which gives Adam and Sandra a unique insight into the extent of how far financial software has evolved since its conception.

Tessa Lee, Managing Director at moneyinfo spoke to Adam and Sandra on how tech can drive efficiencies with reporting and communication processes, and why you should get over your fears and embrace technological adoption.

How to navigate through a moving landscape | Essential technology for Financial Advisers and Wealth Managers | S2 E5

Matthew Clark gives an insight into the different opportunities that have arisen from the tools that financial technology has to offer on how to best serve clients looking to pass on their wealth. In this podcast episode, Matthew discusses the ways Old Mill have tackled challenges that come with intergenerational wealth planning, especially in the current fast changing landscape amplified by the impact of Covid and the rapid pace of developing technology.

Old Mill help clients all the way through their journey from wealth accumulation, to decumulation, and into the next generation. As technology has progressed, Old Mill have adapted their business processes to best service their clients in bringing the next generation along, and Matthew is here to give some great insights on the technology involved that is most suitable for the job.

Communicating regular touch points with clients, involving them through workflow processes, signing documents quickly and effortlessly are all processes that need to be made as efficiently as possible. Matthew discusses low hanging fruits that can be made to spend less time on bulky administrative tasks, and also offers insights on upping your client engagement, giving your business direction and increasing efficiency.

Do you think you’re a forward-thinking firm? Find out if you truly are with this podcast episode which serves as a checklist for financial firm members who want their business to prosper.

Matthew Clark, Operations Manager for Old Mill, is responsible for looking after adviser technology including the back office system, CRM, client portals, and all the processes that are involved. Louise Wallis, Head of Client Services at moneyinfo, spoke to Matthew for a quick chat on intergenerational wealth and how tech can help to smooth the transfer of wealth between generations.

Getting your advisers excited for launch | How to release new tech to your staff and clients | S2 E4

Improving your business isn’t easy, it might be a process that requires an adviser who can give you confidence that the decisions you are making are the right ones. This in itself is a bit like the financial advisory and planning process, as you need a human relationship with somebody who can give you reassurance that you are navigating the right route through a winding forest.

Chris Baigent-Reed discusses the ins and outs of the consultation process she offers to financial firms looking to adopt technology and better their business processes using tech. Chris also gives some insight into what is holding firms back when it comes to getting advisers excited for launch when releasing new tech.

Chris Baigent-Reed is the Founder and Managing Director of Jigsaw Tree. With experience in the Financial Services industry, she moved into the world of Fintech and founded Jigsaw Tree in 2012 to help firms with their technology selection, implementation, configuration training and outsourcing services.

Tune in to this episode of The AdviserTech Show to hear moneyinfo’s Managing Director Tessa Lee speak to Chris Baigent-Reed about how tech has changed over the years and progressed to provide more efficiencies for firms with reporting, communication processes, and bringing clients more into the planning process.

Connecting in the most positive way | Advice firms controlling their platform experience | S2 E3

David Ferguson chats to us about his early experiences of dealing with tech companies, including moneyinfo, and knowledge obtained of 10 years in his time as founder and CEO of Nucleus Financial Group. David believes platforms shouldn’t have a ‘walled garden’ around them, and although it’s not a widely held view, no one system can do everything … for everybody! In this episode David talks about how any avenue platforms could take to benefit their clients should be explored. “People that are doing interesting, helpful things, should be able to connect to each other in the most positive way”.

Moving on to David’s new chapter as CEO, he talks us through his motivations for joining SECCL which were around their fresh approach to being something new in the sector, and the concept of becoming an embedded platform which can plug into any number of user journeys on the front end.

Sim and David discuss how most corporate type platforms which have massively complicated infrastructures were built in the early 2000s, and although they’ve evolved, they were initially built on legacy tech. The cost of upgrading these systems over time becomes prohibitive to innovation, but SECCL is proving to be a welcome alternative, being built from the ground up with customisation at the heart of their proposition.

David is CEO at Seccl and was previously the founder and CEO of Nucleus Financial Group, the financial adviser platform that he led to £20bn in assets under administration (AUA) prior to stepping down in September 2022.

In addition to being a well-known and highly respected figure within the UK’s adviser community, David is also a passionate technologist and supporter of fintech – having served as Chairman of FinTech Scotland and Fintech Envoy for HM Treasury.

Sim and David discuss how some high end firms are still using antiquated tech to power their digital experience. For example, requiring wet signatures should not still be practised, and clients and firms should be striving for something better. SECCL is powering firms to deliver that modern, connected, client experience. 

Tune in to this episode to hear David and Sim Sangha, our Business Development Director discuss how SECCL are truly an API first proposition, allowing firms to build any client journey on top of whatever systems want, and how you always have to consider, control vs compromise, low fees vs high fees, and analogue vs digital.

65 is the loneliest number | How to be a financial adviser that won’t get left behind | S2 E2

The task of connecting with the next generation of clients is a necessary challenge for Advisers who don’t want to get left behind. It’s also a job that Rob Tedder, UK Account Manager for Conquest Planning, is familiar with. Rob’s goal is to get every client with a live financial plan that they interact with and understand the output.

 “If a business isn’t interacting with a multi-generation of clients then they’re absolutely missing a trick.”

There is still a large amount of Advisers who are reluctant to adopt and embrace digital technology when advising clients. However, neglecting to adopt multi-generational planning into your strategy may be more than just missing a trick, and could consequentially lead to being left behind as an adviser.

65% of the next generation will not work with their parents’ Financial Adviser after their wealth has been passed down. This means millennials will work with a different adviser to their current one simply because they don’t have a pre-existing relationship.

In this episode of The AdviserTech Show we delve into the barriers advisers have set themselves by not promoting digital adoption, and how you can avoid being one of the of Advisers who are on their way to losing another client.

Rob kicked off his career journey with an unconventional background in studying food at University, before making his first entrance into the financial industry with pension administration work. His passion is helping advisers and firms engage with technology to improve their business practises.

Tessa and Rob dispel the myth that the older crowd won’t use mobile technology, and it’s actually doubts of the adviser that create a barrier when it comes to digital adoption. One of the reasons for this resistance is the belief that clients will bombard advisers with the new technology and plans they don’t understand.

Tessa is adamant that technology would actually overcome this issue. Whilst using traditional methods of communication would lead to hundreds of phone calls a day for advisers who have clients with queries, digital forms of communication overcome this, as they allow bulk messages and push notifications to give clients a full, quick and easy explanatory rundown.

Listen to this episode to hear moneyinfo’s Managing Director, Tessa Lee, speak to Rob Tedder about how tech can be used to bring the client more into the planning process, and how tech can drive efficiencies within financial organisations.

The gale of creative destruction | What Adviser Technology is lacking | S2 E1

Abraham Okusanya discussed how he has seen financial planning business process change over the years, the impact that technology like Timeline has had on the adviser technology market, and the next steps for the industry.

In particular, Abraham states that the main differences he has seen over time is that advisers are caring less about the investing side of business, and more about developing a plan and healthy relationships with their clients. 

Abraham Okusanya is the founder and CEO of Timeline, a financial technology company on a mission to help millions of people plan, invest and retire with confidence. In 2018, Abraham recognised a lack of technology in the financial advice sector, and so founded Timeline, whose mission is to create best of breed technology that helps advisers plan, invest and deliver advice to their clients.

After a decade of consulting for some of the best and brightest financial planning firms, Abraham came to the conclusion that financial advice technology is lacking. “Old, outdated, and creaking at the seams.” Abraham isn’t scared to say that technology in the financial sector is lacking modernity, as advice technology components such as the platform, the CRM and Cashflow are “built on an infrastructure that is pre-digital age.”

“I am convinced that the gale of creative destruction is going to sweep the platform market unless the incumbent sit up and really start pulling their weight”… Abraham warns of the upcoming demand for tech leaders to adopt efficiencies with reporting and communication processes… or else! 

Tune in to this episode of The AdviserTech Show podcast hosted by moneyinfo’s MD Tessa Lee, as she speaks to Abraham Okusanya about how integration has the ability and potential to push efficiencies with reporting and communication processes, and the barriers that are stopping it from happening right now. 

Ep 23: The Consumer Duty All-Stars

The Consumer Duty All-Stars featuring moneyinfo, Money Alive, and Model Office

In this episode of the AdviserTech Unplugged podcast hosted by moneyinfo’s MD Tessa Lee, we were joined by guests Andy Kirby Director at Money Alive, and Chris Davies Founder of Model Office to discuss how their technology can support financial planning and wealth management firms to meet their Consumer Duty obligations. 

To learn more from the presenters, register for AdviserTech Live 8: https://www.moneyinfo.com/events/advisertech-live-8

Chris Davies kicks off the episode by talking about Model Office, their RegTech platform that helps firms with three things; governance, risk, and compliance. They discuss how they help financial planners and advisers to benchmark themselves against all the rules and regs in one place. The AI driven dashboard then allow users to view where they believe they are, compared to where they actually are, automating the diagnostic phase where firms need to work out what they've already got, and what they need to do, and automating the gap analysis at audit stage.

Andy Kirby describes how Money Alive was established in 2018 to change the way financial professionals educate their clients, by creating a platform that empowers firms to engage their clients and prospects with interactive video experiences on financial services topics. Andy reinforces the fundamental point that Money Alive was created to address the statement 'does a client truly understand'? Andy describes how the individual evidence trail is produced at the client, adviser, and firm levels.

Tessa then explains how moneyinfo is a branded client portal and mobile app that helps firms to deliver game-changing client engagement for forward-thinking, ambitious firms, helping them to deliver their services digitally, improving their profitability, build client loyalty,  increase efficiency, and deliver compliance confidence which is incredibly important when considering your consumer duty obligations.

Tess reminds listeners that the podcast episode is followed by our Consumer Duty event at AdviserTech Live in November 2022. Join us at this complimentary event to hear more from each of the presenters from moneyinfo, Model Office, and Money Alive, and take a look under the bonnet of each piece of tech in some live demos.

Register for AdviserTech Live 8 here: https://www.moneyinfo.com/events/advisertech-live-8

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Ep 22: Turning around business quicker feat. Wendy Fisher, Progeny

In this episode of the AdviserTech Unplugged podcast hosted by moneyinfo’s MD Tessa Lee, we were joined by guest Wendy Fisher, Regional Manager at Progeny to discuss the processes of adopting and implementing new client facing technology in a progressive and expanding planning firm with big aspirations.

When Progeny adopted moneyinfo right at the start of the pandemic, they had to think on their feet. Wendy explains the implementation process, and how she tackled the challenge of getting buy-in from all internal stakeholders in the business; by offering continual training, making the portal part of every touch point with clients, and engaging the moneyinfo support team to understand the inner workings of using the functionalities of the portal.

When Progeny initially launched their portal, they bulk uploaded 2000 clients in the first 24 hours which demonstrated they had big intentions and were going to be a real trailblazer for moneyinfo longer term, showing how the roll-out of a new piece of tech can be carried out over a much shorter timeframe than may be anticipated.

Tess and Wendy discuss Progeny’s newly published survey: ‘Planning to Pass it On’, which explores the multi-generational transfer of wealth, the future of wealth technology, and giving access to clients’ children’s information, allowing family groups to plan for the future.

Progeny conducted the survey as they wanted to understand more about the plans people have around inheritance and intergenerational wealth transfer, how they communicate about it, and how they feel about what is often a very emotive subject. They asked three generations (Baby Boomer, Gen X, Millennial) about their attitudes and expectations for receiving an inheritance or gifted wealth and how important this may be to their financial outlook.

The key findings were really insightful and focus around five areas: intentions around wealth transfer; communication; emotion; expectation; and aspiration. They found that the majority of people are intending to leave an inheritance or pass on money to the next generation but beyond this, very few – only 17% - had a formal plan to do so. And only 3% had worked with a financial adviser on this.

Tune in to the next insightful episode of the AdviserTech Unplugged podcast to fully explore these interesting topics in more detail and get a detailed summary of the ‘Planning to Pass it On’ survey findings.

Ep 21: The road to B-Corp feat. Anthony Villis, First Wealth

Tune in to this episode of AdviserTech Unplugged where our Head of Marketing, Oliver Jenkins chats to Anthony Villis, Managing Director at First Wealth about their journey to becoming a certified B-Corp. If you’re unaware of what a B-Corp is, and how they are changing the way businesses around the globe are beginning to put purpose before profit, this is a great place to start!

First Wealth is a certified B Corp; a business for good that balances profit with the environment, their clients, their community, how they run the business, and the needs of their team. The company was founded the in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis – on the premise that there had to be a better way of doing things.

Anthony explains what a B-Corp is, what attracted First Wealth to work towards B-Corp accreditation, and how has becoming a B-Corp changed their business for the better. He then delves into some of the challenges faced when considering B-Corp accreditation, what the costs have been to the business, and how they are balancing profit with purpose. Anthony closes the episode by offering our listeners a single piece of advice to consider before applying to become a B-Corp themselves.

If you’re a financial planning firm considering joining the B-Corp movement, this is a great place to start to learn about the lived experience of a successful firm that have trodden the path.

Ep 20: The importance of empathy as an adviser feat. Giselle Clayton, Financial Planner

AdviserTech Unplugged welcomed Financial Planner Giselle Clayton, who spoke to us about the development of her career in finance, the diverse experience she has acquired, and the hurdles she overcame as a young woman to get where she is today.

Giselle has seen many changes since working in finance and discusses the challenges she faced. One of the biggest was the attitudes towards women in the finance industry, which didn’t stop her from persevering and making it clear what she wanted in a career.

“You’ve got to communicate you’ve got the client’s best interest at heart”. Giselle shares her key learnings and the importance of being able to connect with people and having empathy as an adviser.

Whether you’re starting a career in finance, or you’ve been in the industry for many years, this talk is an eye-opening insight into the development of a young woman’s experience and journey as a financial planning career.

This is a great chat which will no doubt be inspiring for people to reflect on what really motivates them and how people can get the most satisfaction out of their job.