The AdviserTech Show

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.

Ep 19: Onboarding clients from the get-go feat. Anna Wren, Administration Manager at Motus

This episode of AdviserTech Unplugged features Anna Wren, Administration Manager at Motus Financial Planning. Anna discusses how Motus have approached integrating moneyinfo into their business, and how she has implemented new ways of working into their everyday processes to bring Motus closer than ever to their clients. Motus provides financial planning services to a wide range of professional clients including lawyers, accountants, bankers, architects, and media professionals. They pride themselves on delivering a personal service and engaging with clients in conversation to understand how to make their money work for them as an individual.

“If a client has messaged us before they start work, I now have the flexibility to go back to them straight away.” The moneyinfo app has enabled both Motus staff and clients to adapt to new ways of working for the better! “The bulk of our client communication is now done through Motus Money. We’ve even integrated workflows and had them custom built for us; the main workflow we use is for our annual review process.” Anna chats with our host Lou Wallis, Support and Adoption Manager at moneyinfo, and explains how a few small changes can add up to make a big difference in improving the client experience.

Ep 18: Saving 100 business days per year - feat. Dominika Sieradzka-MacCuirc, Founder of RIE Solutions

In this episode of AdviserTech Unplugged, Dominika Sieradzka-MacCuirc, Founder of RIE Solutions, shares some key improvements wealth managers can take to make the most of their time and resources. “It’s all about the quick wins”, Dominika discusses the small changes you can take to make a big difference to operational efficiencies in your business. RIE Solutions offer practice management support, operational advice, and mentorship to practice / operations managers at SME financial planning firms.

Constantly checking emails, inefficient management of simple tasks which could be automated, and not using the available technology to manage tasks more efficiently. These are all examples that Dominika discusses with Lou Wallis, our Support and Adoption Manager at moneyinfo, with eye-opening statistics and insights for us all to reflect on the critical actions we can take to make the most use of the amount of time we have. Make sure you listen all the way to the end to hear Dominika’s top tips!

Learn more on the RIE Solutions website here: https://rie.solutions/

Ep 17: The BIG Opportunity for Innovators feat. Dr Emma Black from Cascade Cash Management

Join us for the next installment of the AdviserTech Unplugged podcast to hear Dr Emma Black, CEO at Cascade Cash Management talk about the journey she’s been on to gain insight into the financial wellbeing of consumers, and how Cascade Cash Management is in a unique position to create technology and financial products that deliver the desired outcomes for end users to help them meet objectives, hosted by our MD Tessa Lee.

Emma discusses the idea that there is a gap in the market for clients that are left to ‘shop around’ ranges of financial products and services with little or no guidance, and how an Amazon / Apple style marketplace that is very much focused on consumer needs, giving access to the whole of market, is still missing. Emma suggests there is a big opportunity for innovators to come forward and build solutions to overcome these challenges.

Ep 16: Talking Tech with Tim Walton, Aviva’s Platform and Fintech Integration Manager

Join us for the next installment of the AdviserTech Unplugged #podcast to hear Tim Walton, Aviva's Platform and Fintech Integration Manager discuss how firms can help to support their clients in an ever changing industry with market leading technology, hosted by our MD Tessa Lee.

“We need to encourage advice firms to engage more with technology to understand the value of the data they have access to”.

Tim discusses the best ways to maximise adoption with new financial services technology, how to overcome barriers which may cause integration issues, and how services from different providers can be integrated to maximise operational efficiencies for advice firms.

Ep 15: Supporting the Trailblazers with Lewis Hamm from O-IM

In this episode of AdviserTech Unplugged, Chief Executive of O-IM, Lewis Hamm chats to our host Sim Sangha about the benefits of working with an investment manager that exists for you. Lewis chats about the importance of detailed security analysis in developing high quality portfolios and creating portfolios with specific objectives like SRI or AIM IHT.

Lewis explains how well researched companies form an integral part of their portfolio construction, and how that creates a wider choice for advisers. Lewis dives into the value proposition of an investment manager and how they can provide value for advisers and their clients. 

Lewis talks about what their ideal client looks like, fellow trailblazers! People who are frustrated with their current provider and the complexity of the market where O-IM can partner with and support for the benefit of the end client.

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Ep 14: If you build it, they will come...

In the next episode of AdviserTech Unplugged, Founder of Octo Members wealth management community, Lee Robertson chats to our host Sim Sangha about his reasons for creating an online community for advisers to share ideas and experiences.

Lee explains why it is so important for advisers to develop relationships with their industry peers, test ideas, challenge each other, and learn collaboratively in a safe collegial space.

Lee chats about his career, the Octo community, lessons learned, and the massive value of mentors and mentees.