Financial advisers are losing an average of 43 working days each year by performing tasks that could be automated, research has found.
By doing processes manually they are adding an average of 13 hours to each new case, according to Wealth Wizards, the company behind adviser technology platform Turo.
Looking under the bonnet
Wealth Wizards surveyed 140 financial planning firms, which collectively employ 21,000 advisers, about their use of technology.
The businesses were asked to estimate the time spent on the end-to-end advice process where a considerable amount of the work was done manually.
This came to an average of 20 hours per client.
In contrast, advisers who automated fact-finds, risk profiling, market quotations, solution reviews and recommendations – along with drafting suitability letters – took only seven hours per client, on average.
Assuming a 7.5 hour working day and taking on 25 full advice clients per year – failing to adopt technology solutions equates to 43 extra days of work.
Time that could be spent on relationships management, client base growth or other business priorities.
Hinder compliance and scale
“Our research confirms our belief that financial advisers are squandering vast numbers of hours nationally by not taking advantage of new technologies that streamline and underpin administration, solution mapping, report writing, compliance tasks, audit and reporting,” said Andrew Firth, founder and chief executive of Wealth Wizards.
“Recognising that the automation of the advice process is only a component part of the overall relationship management with clients, the time saved by automation is still significant at 43 days.
“This can seriously hinder their ability to manage compliance and scale, which impacts on their bottom line and – more importantly – limits time available to spend with clients. For bigger organisations, like wealth managers, adviser networks and banks, the lost opportunity is huge.
Firth added: “The data shows that more than five million people in the UK would like to receive financial advice in addition to the four-to-six million people already receiving it.
“The 26,000 advisers currently available to help these people must embrace technology to bridge the advice gap with intelligent automation of processes and a great advice experience for more clients.”
