There are a lot of customer relationship management (CRM) solutions out there, including many by large and well-known companies, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy to find a solution that works for wealth management firms and the advisors working with them. In our experience, the opposite is true – when we talk with potential clients who are interested in the NexJ Integrated Advisor Desktop (IAD), what we hear is a lot about what doesn’t work for them.

Having our finger on the pulse of the wealth management industry allows us to develop solutions that address the challenges firms, like yours, face. To that end, hearing from folks at firms like Charles Schwab, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, BNY Mellon and Raymond James among many others at the Aite Wealth and Asset Management Forum on November 9th provided valuable insights on the current challenges they face.

Until advisors can clone themselves, the only path to growth for them – and the firms for which they work – is to get more done in the same amount of time. Technology is part of the answer, but how that technology is applied is even more important.

Artificial intelligence (AI) seems to be everywhere these days, including (if they are lucky) at the fingertips of financial advisors. AI, when designed specifically for wealth management, can help advisors be more efficient, focus less on administrative tasks and more on actual client engagement. And AI continues to evolve and mature. In the next few years, advisors can expect AI to deliver even more highly intuitive, time-saving features that will free them to concentrate on what matters most in serving clients.

We recently caught up with Andrew Cant, Vice President of Financial Services Solutions for NexJ, to explore what’s next for AI in wealth management and what advisors can expect and look forward to:  

Improving advisor productivity is always top of mind in the wealth management industry. It’s a logical focus for wealth management firms looking to attract and retain top talent and increase assets under management. Advisors that have more time to work on growing their book of business, are more likely to be satisfied and they’re bound to be more profitable. According to BCG, “The costs that affluent-focused players incur in producing business are far too high, and they could become even more profitable if they were to increase efficiency.” They go on to state that top performers need 5 fewer assistants than average performers showing the link between efficiency and assets under management.

Wealth management is about trust. It is about giving an advisor control of your financial health and security and depending upon that advisor to make or recommend decisions that help you meet your financial goals. When we, as vendors, focus on features that give our products an edge, we always focus on how specific features can help advisors build more trust. This is what makes relationship hierarchies so important.

In terms of technology, there are minor differences between relationship hierarchies for corporate and investment banking and wealth management. The big differentiator is the intent. Corporate and investment banks track multiple hierarchies for the same corporations, such as risk relationships versus legal relationships. This allows bankers to get a holistic view of what makes the most business sense for a client. Wealth management needs a single hierarchy because they focus on single households and extended households. So, how exactly do you make a hierarchy that specifically speaks to the needs of an advisor?

“You can’t manage what you can’t measure.” It’s an old adage in business, and like many it has its limits, but clear, comprehensive data and reporting truly is crucial for advisors and advisory firms looking to maximize their business.

The challenge is that this data might be locked away in multiple systems, or data from one place might be needed to calculate or give context to data in another. NexJ has solved this challenge with its Analytics and Reports, a key component of the Integrated Advisor Desktop solution we have deployed for major firms.

The Best Advisor Experience Starts With a Model

How many business leaders want to talk about technology when all that matters is understanding how it will drive growth, save money, improve operations or address a specific key metric? The answer is likely few to none. And it's a reasonable position to take, after all, why would anyone spend money if they don't believe there is a return on that investment regardless of how innovative the technology? Does understanding the mechanics of how a product works to drive ROI even matter? In most cases, the answer is no. There are times, however, when a technical approach is different enough that not appreciating it might lead to the wrong decision. We have written many blogs recently that address the business benefits of an Integrated Advisor Desktop, from the functional components including a client dashboard, advisor dashboard, customer engagement dashboard to application integration and data integration. What brings the whole thing together though, the engine that drives the value of the functional areas and even the integration, is the model.

Wealth managers are constantly looking for ways to enable greater efficiency and productivity for their advisors.  Providing tools that automate workflows, increase capacity and advance collaboration helps advisors focus on what matters to grow assets under management and improve client satisfaction. Often these tools, such as portfolio management, financial planning or performance reporting for example, are "stand-alone" products which makes it difficult for the advisor to have the full context of their client in one place. An Integrated Advisor Desktop solves this problem. Last week we discussed how application or UI integration, when done properly, can dramatically improve the productivity of your advisors, but that isn't enough, you also need data integration.

Most advisors need to juggle multiple applications, searching for the client or account each time, to properly service a single customer. Advisor productivity and client experience suffer as individual tasks take longer to perform and mistakes are made. Advisors need a consolidated view of their customers with embedded tools and not just links to other applications.