For some, the adoption of technology by the advice industry is still in its early days. But many agree it has the capacity to ‘free up’ advisers’ time and that this is where technology holds the most value.
Tony Bray, head of business development at threesixty services, suggests it is only in the past 12 to 18 months that the industry has witnessed technology advancements with what he calls “game-changing potential”.
By this, he means, “those with the potential to change the way intermediaries interact with their clients”.
Driving force
He believes the use of technology is being partly driven by open banking regulation.
Open banking, which was set up by the Competition and Markets Authority and was introduced in January 2018, means customers and small and medium-sized businesses can share their current account information securely with other third-party providers.
Earlier this month, Bluestone Mortgages announced it was piloting an open banking service.
“Applications… which for the first time encourage clients to complete their own ‘know your client’ information, are then shared with their adviser through the secure client portal in which the technology is embedded,” he explains.
“Clients can now create their own dashboards, showing their entire wealth, coupled with detailed breakdowns of their income, expenditure, and insurance renewal dates.
“Useful stuff – especially if the client allows their ‘trusted adviser’ to access it,” Mr Bray notes.
“An adviser can do a great deal of meaningful analysis, prior to meeting the client, with such information.”
Regulation has certainly had an impact on advisers’ use of technology, whether the regulation is open banking or GDPR.
The latter came into effect on May 25 2018, and “was a significant driver for advisers to adopt new technology to assist in staying the right side of the law”, according to a press release from Intelliflo.
Intelliflo’s executive chairman Nick Eatock cites the growth in users of its own Intelligent Office software around the time of the implementation of GDPR, despite having been available since 2015. The software allows advisers to exchange messages with clients in a secure environment.
Mr Gagliardi adds: “Linear processes, such as a client fact-find or cash flow modelling, have become dynamic, with advisers having access to much richer data on their clients, at any time.
“You can see initiatives like open banking only accelerating these opportunities, by enhancing the quantity of data and analytics available to advisers.”
There are areas of the industry which have been slower to adopt technology though.
Conor Murphy, chief executive of Smartr365, observes: “Technology has been widely adopted across the financial advice space, especially after the Retail Distribution Review, with most investments, reporting and client contact now driven via platforms.
