Be-IQ, founded by behavioural finance expert Neil Bage, launched a consumer-facing interactive app — ‘Beam’ — in December last year which allows people to better understand their financial behaviour through a series of games and questions.
Adviser platform Nucleus has partnered with the firm to support the launch of a behavioural dashboard for advisers to be used alongside the Beam app.
The idea is that advisers can ask their clients to play the games and answer the questions at their leisure before an initial or catch-up meeting. The app will then provide the adviser with analysis of the results, indicating risk aversions, reactions to loss and underlying biases.
Mr Bage told FTAdviser: “Clients go into these meetings with pre-conceptions and already formed answers, often wanting to say what the adviser wants to hear.
“But with this app, clients can play the games at their own pace in a place of comfort — with a glass of wine on the sofa — so it can be a better indication of how a client will actually react to things.”
Mr Bage added the app could show advisers which of their clients could need reassurance or coaching in managing turbulent market cycles and encouragement to stay invested.
He said: “This way, advisers can get ahead of this. If a client is calling you, then it’s too late because they’re already panicking. But if you know how they will react in turbulent times, they can be at the top of your list to call and you get ahead of any crisis.”
The technology provides a segmentation method based on behaviour, meaning the analysis can group clients into risk categories based on the insight the app provides.
To start with, Nucleus advisers are able to access the Beam technology for a reduced price while over the next few months Nucleus will run education sessions and release white papers on behavioural insights and how it can fit into advice.
Barry Neilson, chief customer officer at Nucleus, told FTAdviser the end goal was for the technology to be part of the adviser experience on the platform, but that there needed to be further adviser education about how this could be used before it became commonplace.
He added using insights such as Beam was the future of advice. He said: “Suitability requirements are becoming more and more important and therefore so is understanding your client.”
Mr Neilson also thought it would help advisers scale up their business by partly digitising the “knowing your client” element of their advice process.
He said: “The momentum around behavioural coaching is growing, to the extent that we see this as the next big leap in financial planning.
“This partnership is a direct response to meeting the needs of an increasing number of advisers who want to embed behavioural insight in what they do.”
Mr Neilson added Be-IQ was “hugely influential” and was “leading the way in this space”, saying he was keen to get the word out about “how powerful behavioural insights” could be.
imogen.tew@ft.com
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