Audio Transcript

For the next few weeks, we will be talking at how Wealth & Investment Managers in the UK are adapting to a world of digital engagement, automation and machine learning, whilst still delivering a tailored and client centric service.
At Objectway our clients span every size, shape and model of Wealth Manager, with Assets Under Management ranging from £200m up to over £50bn. What might be interesting to analyse for the purpose in those at the smaller end of the scale and how are able to adapt to a more digitally led and automated world, whilst still maintaining the personal relationship and trust built up between advisor and client.

These independent wealth managers typically have under £2bn of assets under management or custody. They pride themselves on providing a far more bespoke service to their clients than perhaps found in larger firms, who perhaps have a greater desire for standardisation, efficiency and can fund large-scale IT projects to deliver change.
Of course, there is no wrong approach and both models have their own merits and the client’s best interests at their heart, but how can these smaller firms adapt to greater demand for digital from clients?
Digitalising your client engagement model is not about forcing digital on clients at the detriment of personal service, it’s about enabling your clients to interact with you differently if they choose, it’s about offering them the ability to digitise certain interactions and also improving the speed and frequency of client communication.

We believe that improving how you adopt digital, how you incorporate it into your operational model and enabling a digital led client engagement model does not demand huge multi-million-pound projects. It can be achieved at a pace and budget that is sustainable for this tier of the market.

It’s about carefully targeting those areas that are going to deliver the most significant benefit. Simple changes, that are cost effective and relatively quick to implement, such as:

• digitising client communications
• deploying services via Apps
• improving your internal onboarding process through efficient workflows
• managing elements of a client’s assets in a more automated and cost-effective manner

All of these add value to the overall client experience and their touch points with you, but also drive improved advisor/client ratios without changing the fundamental ethos of the firm.
Relevant across all tiers of the market, but perhaps particularly so in these smaller, independent firms – Digital transformation should be viewed as a journey and not as a destination. It’s about understanding where you need to go, having a desire to get there and how you take the first step.

More to this on next week episode!