Crypto. The Great Wealth Transfer. And all the acronyms you can imagine, from BaaS to AI to SSO.
What do they all have in common? They’re part of a momentous digital shift in the trust and wealth management industry. But this shift is also causing a digital divide between wealth managers and their clients.
Traditionally, wealth managers have relied on old-school (i.e. in-person) tactics to keep in touch with their clients and provide exceptional client service. However, the standard lunch meeting or office visit are being replaced with online meetings and DIY goal-setting.
The gap between clients who want an in-person experience and those ready for more digital approaches can be bridged by one element that’s critical to retaining clients and generating new business: relationship building.
Relationship building and wealth management
Wealth owners and trustors are starting to prefer (and demand) a digital customer experience.
According to the 2023 EY Global Wealth Management report, more than 70 percent of clients want a complete online view of their financial position, and more than 40 percent prefer virtual collaboration with their wealth managers over their account’s lifecycle.
Those of us in the industry don’t blame them – most of our lives are operated and managed digitally. Why not align your wealth accounts in the same way?
But simultaneously, clients are also relying on their wealth managers to connect, engage, and advise with them to optimize their portfolio performance. The digital offerings are important, but clients are still demanding a personalized experience that can only come from a wealth manager who knows their accounts and information personally.
While there’s undoubtedly demand and benefits to implementing technology into relationship building and business practices, technology alone can’t provide the comprehensive client experience that today’s wealth owners are looking for.
The role of technology in relationship building
Rather than taking away from the client experience, leveraging modern tech solutions can help build and improve your client experience building.
Solutions like business intelligence provide wealth managers with more insight into market trends and their clients’ portfolios so they can give a more personalized and consultative client experience. Client-facing apps and portals give better transparency and provide multi-channel means of communication so your client can get in touch with you anytime and anywhere. And task automation can drastically reduce steps in trust accounting and wealth management processes so there’s more time for client interaction.
Engaging with your clients doesn’t have to mean direct eye contact in an office or physical paper copies of their statements and financial plans (but if that’s you, keep doing what you’re doing!). The right solutions will equip wealth managers with the tools they need to provide an exceptional and personal client experience. And ultimately, it will enable wealth managers to be accessible, agile, and in-tune to what clients need.
Technology provides accessibility
A good friend is there if you need them – in all forms and mediums. They’re engaging with you over text, through social media, and even through word-less communication like photos, emojis, and gifs.
In a similar way, technology can enable wealth managers to be accessible and available to their clients through more than just in-person meetings and phone calls.
Having multiple channels of communication gives your clients more opportunities to engage with you when they need it. If they have a question about their accounts at 6 a.m., their first step should be to contact their wealth manager. That line of communication stops if they don’t have a convenient or easy way to reach out to their wealth manager. Opening more channels of communication gives more opportunity to connect with your client and to position yourself as a reliable and trusted source.
Clients also want an autonomous wealth management experience. Increasingly, wealth owners want access to the status of their accounts, their position, and how the markets are impacting their wealth.
They want to see their information quickly and at any given moment. Giving clients that accessibility gives them control over their account engagement and involves them in the account management experience – further building that relationship between client and wealth manager.
Technology enables agility
Being agile means more than just being quick. It also means being adaptable.
Wealth managers are all too aware of the market’s volatility over the last several months – which means clients are also aware (or they are at least aware the market isn’t exactly stable). More and more, clients are relying on their wealth managers to give accurate, reliable, and holistic advice when it comes to their portfolios and accounts.
This means wealth managers need to utilize technology to be responsive to what clients need in the moment. It means telling them what they need to hear in an adaptable way, whether that’s visually through looking at their accounts, through words in written communication, or in their statements where they can easily see where their account changes occur. And it means offering services beyond portfolio management (such as account access or insight into market trends) so you can meet their needs and advise based on their specific account activity and goals.
Technology puts you more in-tune with client needs
Lastly, it’s important to be in-tune with what your clients need.
The EY study also found that clients value personal advice during the financial planning lifecycle and want to discuss how their values can impact and be reflected in their financial plans.
Clients want personalized service and a wealth manager who understands their unique traits, values, and behaviors. And it makes sense – wealth is a sensitive and personal subject. Your client could’ve worked hard for years to build up their wealth, or they could’ve inherited it and want to use it for the greater good of the world. Regardless of how they received their wealth, each client experience is unique and should be treated that way.
Staying updated on your clients’ account activity and becoming familiar with their personal goals builds trust and credibility – both of which clients are looking for in an advisor. And opening channels of communication and engagement will help them navigate a volatile market (and curtail the possibility of them looking for a new wealth manager).
A new way of doing business
It’s undeniable that the wealth management industry is undergoing a digital transformation. The traditional ways of doing business are diminishing. Wealth managers will have to pivot to a new way of connecting with clients, or they could risk losing their business.
Although the trust and wealth management industry has lagged in innovation, recent advancements are equipping wealth managers to provide a customer experience that’s more client-centric, accessible, and profitable in the long run.
