In the first of our articles exploring the impending changes gathering on the horizon of the wealth management industry, we examined the evolution of the sector’s audience, the tendency of the industry to drag its heels with regard to digital transformation, and the rise of the younger, agile agencies – already acting to claim the next generation of tech-savvy clients.
In this follow up piece, we’ll examine two additional aspects of the evolving wealth management business, and consider the ways in which digital transformation can help to ensure that your wealth management business is ready to make the most of all emerging opportunities.
Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow? Switching Wealth Managers Is Becoming Easier…
Fintech has transformed the way that we bank and manage our money in the modern world – and as adoption and experience spreads, becoming more commonplace, the expectation of frictionless, self-service account management is becoming an established baseline.
Speed and convenience count for everything in today’s climate – in 2021, roughly three in four Americans (76%) used their primary bank’s mobile app for everyday banking tasks. While this means that providers of all financial services need to up their game when it comes to digital transformation, there’s another aspect to this evolution that many are failing to consider – the impact upon client retention.
Barriers to accessing financial services and products have never been lower. Smart digital automations, chatbots and pre-configured email flows mean that prospective clients can employ the services of a new provider at any hour of the day or night – often before the need for a “real time” human interaction has even been necessitated.
What does this mean for wealth managers? Simply put – your clients are going to have an easier job of jumping ship. If the push and pull factors start to fall outside of your favour, the steps needed to get up and running elsewhere are rapidly reducing. The hassle of moving to a new service, client onboarding and connecting with a new wealth manager is being erased, and the smartest firms are making sure prospective clients know exactly how easy and painless a switch to their services will be.
Of course, this phenomenon has been accelerated by the effects of the pandemic, with client expectations driving technology investments and setting a true strategic imperative. The message is clear – customer experience (enhanced by digital provision) is driving true competitive advantage within the sector, and it’s never been easier for clients to vote with their feet.
Shifting Focus: A Move Towards Wealth Management Client Retention
What does this mean for the development of your own client strategy? While many wealth managers are removing the barriers to enhance client acquisition, we’d argue that you should also be thinking about retention – and specifically, about retention much earlier on within the client journey.
Although it may sound slightly oxymoronic – retention plays should essentially start within the acquisition phase. The way in which you bring a new prospect into the fold should represent such a sleek, well considered and appealing experience that client onboarding alone helps to secure their lasting loyalty.
To learn more about this topic, read our article outlining five key ways in which client onboarding impacts long term client retention.
Many larger and more firmly established wealth management companies have a false sense of security when it comes to client retention. They’re largely reliant on habit and inertia on the part of their client base – and for an older audience, there may well be a kernel of truth to these assumptions.
However, the groundswell of a new generation of investors cannot be ignored. Wealth managers underestimate the attitude and expectations that this new class of clientele brings with them at their peril. Younger, more agile wealth management businesses understand their needs and are already out there making polished first impressions…
Wealth Management’s Digital Transformation: The Solution To Stickier Clients
MyDocSafe recognises the significant impact that onboarding can have on wealth management client retention, and supports the process through a wide range of improved digital interactions, authorisations and custom-built, end to end onboarding flows.
Beyond wealth management client onboarding, the digital transformation of client management – from security checks and authorisations through to dedicated, fully branded client portals – can also be facilitated through MyDocSafe. By making digital interactions seamless, initiative and empowering clients to take active control over their information and instruction in an instantaneous, autonomous manner, the suite of digital management tools on offer to wealth managers helps set a new standard for satisfied clients.
Futureproof Your Wealth Management Business
Ultimately, in order to secure the best stability from your wealth management business’s ongoing client base, creating more dependable accounts and lasting relationships, a combination of improved retention and acquisition must be leveraged.
What does this look like in practice? Doubling down on digital transformation to create easier pathways for new clients, promoting the fact that you’ve invested in making this process friction-free, and continuing to meet rising client expectations with a high level of specialist digital provision.
