Key trends shaping adviser tech in 2024
Nick Eatock, CEO, intelliflo
At this time of year, it’s natural to think about what lies ahead and I think the outlook for 2024 is pretty exciting. After some challenging times for the advice sector, there are plenty of reasons to be optimistic that the next twelve months will be brighter than the last.
Economically, it feels like we’re on a sounder footing, which is important from a business perspective, and from a technology standpoint, I think the advice profession is on the verge of a significant step forward. This year will see important changes in technology that will transform how advisers operate and engage with clients.
Personalisation at scale
When intelliflo launched in 2004, we were in an era when advice centred on products and was driven by commission. For the last decade though, thanks to the Retail Distribution Review, the advice profession has become far more client-centred, and more recently Consumer Duty has reaffirmed the importance of a client-driven approach to advice.
Today, financial advice is the ultimate personalised experience, with suitability to individual circumstances a central tenet of financial planning. However, this personalised experience is difficult to provide effectively at scale without technology.
Advice technology has also evolved over the last ten years to support client-centric advice, transforming from largely focussing on record keeping to full practice management functionality. The shift reflects a growing recognition that technology can enhance the advice process as well as administer it.
However, there’s much more that technology can do to support personalisation as firms grow. I think in 2024 we’ll see significant changes in how advisers use technology to strengthen processes and deliver high-quality, individualised advice to more people.
Integrated Advice Journeys
A key part of this is delivering fully integrated advice journeys. Integration – or lack of it – has been a constant bugbear for advisers in recent years as their chosen solutions fail to talk to each other properly. But I believe 2024 will be the year we start to see a real step change in connectivity throughout the advice journey. For the first time, advisers can deliver the whole advice journey, from the initial client contact to implementation of the plan and ongoing management, in a single system.
We developed wealthlink to enable advisers to manage their entire advice process and put client plans into action without ever having to leave intelliflo office. We expect wealthlink to expand to include other partners in due course, but we also hope our offering will encourage other platforms and software providers to launch more joined-up journeys too. Fully integrating the advice journey from start to end will streamline operational processes for adviser firms and ultimately benefit consumers. Only by removing the need for advisers to constantly switch systems and rekey information can we hope to support sustainable growth in the profession and broaden access to advice.
The potential of AI
Another important element of delivering client-centred advice to more people is increasing the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) in financial advice. We’ve seen a lot of talk and little action around AI in advice in the last few years, but now it feels like there is now real momentum to embrace some of the benefits it offers.
Of course, many advisers hear AI and immediately switch off, but we’re not talking about robots coming for your jobs. I don’t think the human aspect of advice is at risk just yet. But there are lots of ways AI can help ease the administration burden for financial advisers, like call transcription, initial report writing and supporting Consumer Duty monitoring requirements. I know several advice firms and tech firms and others have been experimenting with AI, and this feels like the year where some of that gets airborne. We’ve been busy too – watch this space!
As a technology firm, we have to always be innovating to keep meeting the evolving needs of our clients, but I think 2024 will see a real breakthrough in how advisers use technology to enhance the advice process. Some of the themes we’ve been talking about for a few years will be put into practice to deliver a more efficient, more effective and more engaging way of working for advisers and clients alike. I think that’s definitely something to feel excited about.
This article was first published in Professional Adviser on 29th January. Please find a link to the original piece here.