TechnologyMar 21 2022

Hybrid advice: ‘Gone will be the days of an annual review’

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Hybrid advice: ‘Gone will be the days of an annual review’
Charlie Bibby/Financial Times

Speaking at The Investing and Saving Alliance’s (TISA) annual conference last week (March 16), industry members discussed the impact of data and how the hybrid advice model can help to close the advice gap.

Appearing on the panel, Siadatan said there was 10 years worth of advancement in the past few years due to Covid which has seen an increase in the usage of the firm’s software in the way that it is being deployed remotely.

“Advisers are now having meetings on Zoom, they're having annual reviews on Zoom, they're using much more politically, our sustainability and risk profiling questionnaires online for example, so we've just seen the stats rise exponentially on that. We've been closely tracking 6,500 users and asking them periodic questions all the way throughout the last couple of years.”

However, she explained that the days where a client has to have an annual review and formal meeting with an adviser will be “gone” in the future. 

Siadatan said: “There's going to be an ‘always on’ financial plan where you'll get a push notification to your phone when your valuations have changed more than 10 per cent. You will get automated advice when it's necessary through brilliant algorithms, yet you will also be able to contact your adviser through secure messaging at a time that suits you.

“For me, hybrid advice is about accessing the 10mn people in the UK that currently need and want financial advice but can't afford it. It's about being able to help those 10mn plus people save and invest for a future reducing the reliance on the state and ultimately bringing financial planning into a world where it's totally accessible for everybody from auto enrolment from your teen years right through to when you're about to retire. 

“That's what hybrid advice is and that's where this industry is absolutely heading.”

The biggest pain point in the industry as we see it is the data, how do we get the data in and  that is absolutely key.Yasmina Siadatan

Siadatan said that as an industry, the advice space is in a phase of transitioning at the moment as it adjusts.

“There are teams of UX designers globally that are trying to make this stuff really engaging, bringing this data to life in a way that's engaging for the customer and I think that's really exciting for us as an industry," she said.

“Consumer protection is growing globally, demographics show that the ageing population is happening all across the world so hybrid advice and Covid acceleration of it couldn't have come at a better time.”

Continuing this discussion on where the future of hybrid advice is headed, Nick Hall, head of advice at Wealth Wizards, said hybrid offering gives customers guidance and advice but in the digital world that they are used to.

“Hybrid advice is all about effectively giving them that choice to go and get the help and guidance and simplified advice using automated processes that are aligned to wealth managers businesses," Hall said.

“Obviously, at some point, they would want to speak to a human or need to speak to a human so the hybrid advice element is effectively then handing over smoothly to an adviser so they can have the conversations they normally have for the more complex needs that a client may have.  It is the future where I truly believe the advice business is going.”

Data is a pain point

Yet the use of data within hybrid advice is the biggest strain on the industry, according to Siadatan.

She argued that the biggest difficulty at the moment is how to get the data in.

“That's the biggest pain point facing our industry and I think we all need to work together to solve that which will ultimately help solve the advice gap because that's the only way we're going to be able to see these efficiency gains long term,” she said. 

“We do see a lot of that happening in the industry on the ground, which is great. A lot of these big advice firms have been going 10 to 15 years, they've got a lot of legacy technology, and they're getting to the point now where they've tried to kind of build and they've tried to buy and now they're saying 'okay, really what is the next 10 to 15 years longevity here' and it is all about investing in the technology and all about investing in data.

“That's really where we see a lot of opportunity as well as challenge.”

Likewise, Hall said for a lot of businesses it is about having a look at their client base and seeing how the client can be managed most effectively.

He explained that by offering every client access to automation using hybrid advice, it will give provide them access so they can engage with it themselves in a self-serving manner. 

“What they are able to do effectively, is lower the cost to serve so ultimately that's giving them more time and then allowing them to bring more clients on," Hall said.

“Using old systems, it’s taking us 35 to 40 hours to process one advice case, what hybrid advice has brought is that this case time now is coming down to 10 and 11 hours because the automation is taking away the pain points of reference.

“They can now take on more clients, and give clients different levels of service."

Hall said Wealth Wizards has done a lot of work with open data providers to be able to ask a customer if things such as their electricity and gas bills can become automated to make it as easy as possible. 

“A lot of people use the word ecosystem at this point now, I refer to this as technology. It is all about just creating the right thing for the customer and the adviser. It’s not about let's replace every bit of technology with this new technology, it’s about what have you got already and what can we bring that makes the customer journey the easiest it possibly can be."

He added: “For me, it's about engagement, if we can give customers more information, more data than we already know, it is engaging them far better. If you engage them in the right way, they'll take the next step.”

sonia.rach@ft.com

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