Using FinTech to Provide Value for Customers

According to Quilter's the average age of a financial adviser in the UK today is 58.

In the early 2000s, I was peripherally involved in the development of one of the first wraps. It was a dinosaur when compared to its modern ancestors, but very state-of-the-art at the time. Most advisers didn't understand it, let alone The FSA.

In June 2007 Apple released its first iPhone and since then personal communications and tech generally have improved and grown exponentially. Financial advisers have started to use tech to their advantage, probably as a result of RDR, when they were forced to transfer billions of client assets onto a small number of wraps in order to survive in a commission-free world.

Today it is possible to complete a full fact find, receive regulated financial advice and a full Suitability Report, complete KYC, select an investment product, open an account on a wrap and transfer the cash into your account within a couple of hours and without speaking to a human being. That's how far we've come.

I dare say most financial advisers, who are long in the tooth and close to the average age, could provide dozens of well-rehearsed reasons why one shouldn't use a robot to obtain financial advice.

Most of those advisers can't afford to give advice to the millions of customers who were disenfranchised during RDR and most of those customers can't afford to pay for advice from a human.

But there is nothing to stop advisers providing a low cost digital service for their customers while providing their clients with the human touch. It could turn low or non-income producing customers into fee-paying customers and increase the value of the business.

Read the article here: https://www.professionaladviser.com/opinion/4015079/nick-eatock-providing-value-investment-process