Richard Wake, Chief Customer Officer, intelliflo

Meeting digital expectations

Although the trend towards digital started long before this decade, the movement restrictions of the early 2020s led to people becoming very comfortable interacting online, including managing their finances. According to analysis by comparison platform finder. com, 86 % of UK adults, some 46 million people, use a form of online or remote banking. This growing confidence around completing financial transactions online extends to wealth management too.

At intelliflo, the switch from in-person to digital enforced by the Covid19 restrictions saw the number of advised clients registered on our client portal surge by 300 % during the pandemic. The high level of usage has continued since with one in 150 UK adults now using our client portal.

Over recent years, we’ ve also seen both firms and clients engaging more frequently with intelliflo software, with huge increases in the number of secure messages sent and documents shared digitally as well as usage of the electronic signature tool DocuSign.

This switch to digital has also opened up new opportunities for firms to make better use of the data they hold on clients. Here we look at three ways financial advice firms can use technology to help make sure the data you hold benefits both your clients and your business. Keep in mind that ensuring clients have easy access to the latest accurate key information is essential under the Consumer Duty‘ customer understanding’ outcome.

1. Ensuring accurate data via a client portal

As well as giving clients the ability to see their portfolio valuation and relevant details, client portals can also help ensure the information you hold is correct by putting them in control of their personal data. This can support the initial fact-find and onboarding process and also speed up the data gathering process in advance of regular meetings.

Minimising errors will improve the efficiency of your advice process, and keeping accurate client records will also help you stay on the right side of the regulators as this is a UK data protection requirement.

Putting the client in charge can also encourage them to provide a more complete picture of their finances, including linking to their non-advised finances via Open Banking. Advisers uncovered £ 20m worth of held-away assets in just three weeks when intelliflo launched its Open Banking functionality in 2021, and clients continue to embrace the aggregated view of their finances.

Linking to clients’ other financial providers can also provide up-to-date banking and credit data to streamline mortgage applications, and gain an accurate view of clients’ incomings and outgoings to better inform cashflow projections.

40 | The Adviser