Once upon a time, not so long ago, when I went to conferences targeted at advisers, it was all about how to attract more clients.
If you wanted to make more money, you had to get more people through the door and push more products at them.
Fast forward to conferences today and it isn’t about how to get more people sat in your office – it is about how to handle the problem of having too many clients and not enough minutes in the day to see them all.
Looking at the distribution landscape today you can’t help but feel the power has shifted from providers to advisers.
Thirty years ago, an adviser was only as strong as the compelling deals they had to push to clients and therefore how well they scrambled to make sure they got the best commission from providers.
Heck, even 15 years ago it was all about networks boasting they were the best because they had secured fantastic mortgage and protection policies with added extras and extra commission for their advisers.
Just because it is no longer cost effective to see them face-to-face it seems lunacy to give them away when you could use technology.These days though, post the Retail Distribution Review and shift towards customer-agreed remuneration, advisers can earn money without having to push switching from one product to another.
Earlier this week I met with Ronnie Taylor, distribution director of Scottish Widows, and I chatted about why rivals such as Standard Life were snapping up intermediary companies these days and asked would his company follow suit.
While Mr Taylor ruled out buying advice firms like Standard Life has done he said Scottish Widows was committed to working with intermediaries as these days it is advisers that have the power.
Far from destroying the sector, Mr Taylor said the Retail Distribution Review and then former chancellor George Osborne’s pension freedoms have made advisers more powerful than ever before.
These days it isn’t about launching hundreds of different flavours of pension products.
It is about equipping you with the tools and delivering the kind of service that proves you were right to recommend a provider’s products in the first place and right to say you should stick with that scheme and increase your contributions.
Unlike in the past, where switching products meant paying hefty exit fees, these days if providers fail to deliver advisers mainly can get their clients to vote with their feet and take their cash swiftly elsewhere.
Of late I have been bombarded with providers explaining how they intend to make your lives easier with extra automation to ensure you can do business more swiftly and get the information you need when you need it.
Several software providers are looking at ways to create better automatic reviews to flag who in your client bank is still on track to meet their financial goals and who is veering off course and needs a human adviser to help.
Technology is transforming the way you work... and I believe to continue to thrive, every adviser should contemplate some form of robo-advice for clients they can no longer afford to see in person.
You have gathered these clients. Just because it is no longer cost effective to see them face-to-face it seems lunacy to give them away when you could use technology to continue to boost their wealth.
Looking at the distribution landscape in May 2017, if it wasn’t for the nasty shock of regulatory fee bills and sudden changes in red tape I really would argue that advisers had never had it so good.
emma.hughes@ft.com
