Client expectations are rapidly shifting, shaping the way advice in financial services is structured. Calls for greater convenience, tailored solutions and greater choices have grown louder. Banks must give the right advice, at the right time, and in the right way in order to stay on top of the game.
Unique Client Experience Powered By Technology
Imparting advice is a core competence of financial service. Giving advice means supporting clients to make investment decisions by taking into account their individual situations. As straightforward as this statement might sound, the reality behind it is evolving at a fast pace.
The principal driver is heightened client expectations. High net worth clients expect dedicated human client advisors to be complemented with sophisticated digital tools and capabilities. This goes beyond ‘channels’ that provide access to transactions – it is more about content. Bridging the gap between content and delivery by offering clients the best of both worlds is hybrid advice, which is an industry trend today. This is shaping the industry towards RM-led, digitally- complemented advice.
Top-quality advice made available to clients is important, but how the advice is delivered makes the full experience for them. Wealth managers are impelled to bring RM-client connections to the next level through technology, by enabling secure documentation and order-taking functions on instant messaging channels such as WhatsApp and WeChat. There is also an increased focus towards equipping the RM with information on their fingertips by connecting the vast ecosystem of banks’ infrastructure seamlessly. The result is an enriched content for the clients which can be delivered through various personalized channels.
Personalisation Imperative
The future of personalisation in wealth management lies not primarily in selling but in providing targeted information to clients on a regular basis. Data and analytics are a powerful pair to anticipate individual needs and build deep relationships. Machine learning and big data are the tools of the future to create dedicated equity investment ideas for RMs to share with clients. The next step will be the enhancement of personalised content distribution channels through instant chat functions, providing advice and solutions to clients at their doorstep.
Value Beyond Advice
That is, however, not the end of the story. Similar to the advisory space, wealth managers are enhancing their discretionary offering with new solutions. The advisory and discretionary worlds must be brought together using a fully modular architecture, enabling clients to choose their blend of advice, interaction and delegation. This will empower advisors to conduct holistic reviews of advisory and discretionary portfolios for clients and deliver exceptional experience.
Wealth managers are witnessing rising interest in digital assets, particularly from UHNW investors who are considering them as part of a portfolio. They are identifying ways to enable institutional and accredited investors to tap into a fully integrated trading and custody ecosystem for digital assets.
Many of them have enhanced the research coverage for “crypto coins” with portraits of leading digital assets, providing an overview of their underlying technology, history, investment case and key risks. Digital assets are poised to be an integral part of tomorrow’s digital economy and leading wealth managers are gearing up to serve their clients in this space.
The needs of high net worth clients today go far beyond traditional products into the realms of holistic solutions. Reconciling the professional activities and the international lifestyle of clients with tax laws, social security systems and inheritance laws is highly complex and reliant on delicate conversations. This is particularly true for wealthy Indian clients and their cross border network of business, real estate and family interests. Aligning both the requirements of domestic and non-resident Indians is a key quality of an India-dedicated wealth manager. Drawing up bespoke solutions in that sense requires expert advice, touching wealth planning, financing, structuring and philanthropy counselling to family office services, just to name a few.
Agile Management
For the past few years, the malleability of wealth managers’ work has enlarged. The art of adapting smartly is imperative in today’s fast-paced markets in the backdrop of the ongoing geopolitical changes.
To deliver bespoke solutions that are connected to a vast technology architecture, wealth managers are adopting agile methods not only in software development, but also in the entire ‘change-the-bank’ activities, from front to back. This change in processes enhance client experience by focusing on ‘client journeys’, prioritise innovations that matter the most, and accelerate delivery by decreasing wait times.
The future will be driven by clients’ expectation and acceptance of technological disruption, reshaping the value proposition of the investment advisory client journey. Understanding clients’ individual preferences will, however, remain the key.
This will hinge on a collaboration between human advisors, who will remain instrumental in delivering a personable client experience, and robo-advisors which will deepen efficiencies and accuracies. Ultimately, it is all about finding the right balance.
(By Rajesh Manwani, Head Markets and Wealth Management Solutions Asia at Julius Baer)
