Is your use of tech stacking up?

The financial advice industry isn’t one you’d normally associate with rapid change but 2020 saw the sector go through significant transformation. Widespread adoption of new digital technology allowed advisers to continue servicing their clients online, bringing in new working practices that have also helped them save time.

Despite these improved efficiencies, the increased burden of regulation remains a significant drag on adviser resources and time. Data collected from our 2020 annual adviser survey, due for release in the next couple of weeks, demonstrates the strength of feeling felt by advisers, with 74% of respondents including the burden of regulation in their top three areas of concern. This is despite 2020 being a very quiet year in terms of new regulation coming into force.

Technology infrastructure is a crucial part of the advice process and we expect it to be a hot topic in 2021, with improved adoption of technology helping to reduce admin and drive further efficiencies in working practices. The continued downward pressure on adviser fees and the difficulty in taking on more clients due to time spent on admin, means the smooth running of business processes and systems is even more critical for business success.

Putting technology at the heart of your CIP and integrating your investment research and analysis, investment management, planning tools, and back-office systems, can help improve efficiency, reduce risk, and provide a better experience for your clients. However, working with multiple systems can be expensive, and not all advisers are happy with the service they are getting from their current providers.

The Nextwealth and PFS report, Financial Advice Business Benchmarking, highlights that only 13% of advisers are extremely satisfied with their current technology infrastructure, whilst 38% of Advisers were dissatisfied. So why is this? The report also states that advisers are often frustrated by a lack of integration and connectivity across the various platforms they use, with 53% stating that a lack of integration is their major tech challenge.

Better connected tech can save time and money

The administrative grind of managing portfolios can be a challenge and without good integrations between systems, planners are often forced to duplicate efforts and data entry. However, in some cases, this could be down to a lack of knowledge about the integrations that are already available or a lack of training to get the most out of them.

FE Analytics, our award-winning investment research and analysis platform integrates with all of the major client platforms and back-office systems, including Intelliflo, Xplan, and Adviser Office.

For example the integration between FE Analytics and Intelliflo allows you to launch FE Analytics directly from Intelliflo office at the click of a button. Users can automatically import a portfolio directly into the ‘Portfolio Builder’ tool in FE Analytics, allowing you to carry out portfolio analysis & research in FE Analytics without having to replicate and rebuild the portfolio, increasing efficiency and saving time. A similar service and the ability to share data is also available with Iress.

Reducing your tech stack

Cost pressures are another concern for advisers, with 52% of respondents in our adviser survey raising operational costs as a key issue. The high cost of tech often deters smaller or medium sized firms from onboarding services that would otherwise make their lives easier or provide added value to clients. Reducing the number of providers you work with could be one way to keep costs down.

FE Analytics offers advisers access to unparalleled investment data research, analysis, reporting and ongoing due diligence but also has a multitude of functions, tools and capabilities that can help you make better and more informed investment decisions for your clients.

In built cost and charges calculators allow you to calculate and compare the reduction in yield on portfolios over customisable time periods and growth rates.

Our fully integrated Investment Planner service provides access to a psychometric ‘Attitude to Risk Questionnaire’ and can help you better understand your clients’ capacity for loss, confirm the suitability of a chosen risk profile, and map an investment solution to the most suitable risk profile.

Our MPS Directory, now includes over 50 of the UK’s most used MPS Providers, allowing you to Review and compare the performance of your selected DFM.

FE Analytics also gives you access to Fundinfo ratings, the most widely used independent ratings in the UK, to help you refine fund selections or quickly identify the best funds in the market.

Join our webinars

Improving your technology integrations

In this webinar:

A summary of the 20+ integrations that you can use to import data directly into Analytics
How to integrate your risk profiling process through FE Analytics for a more joined up solution
Uploading fund codes to reduce the time taken to find them manually within the system
A review of what you can do with the data once uploaded into Analytics

Click here to register