People in southeast Asia spend more time using the internet on a computer than any other region on the planet, according to research from social media management platform Hootsuite and social and digital agency We are Social.
This comes as no surprise as every facet of modern life is now touched by technology in some way, and while this presents problems, it can also be hugely positive, writes Ian Kloss, chief executive of Old Mutual International Singapore.
The international advice industry is similarly awash with technology and advisers are benefiting from quicker transactions, improved efficiencies, and a better experience for both clients and advisers.
In years gone by, the advice process was more transactional in nature but now there’s a global shift towards holistic financial planning. Advisers must evolve and flex their business models to focus on repeatable, efficient advice.
Not only can technology facilitate this efficiency, it is now not just wanted, but expected, from clients.
Platform push
Statistic database Statista claims that almost 4.48 billion people (58% of the global population) were active internet users as of October 2019, so you can envisage that any client in the future will want at least some technological component to their advice process.
It’s therefore not surprising that only 4% of the 180 financial advisers from across Asia, the UK, Europe and the Middle East, surveyed by OMI, feel technology does not help their business.
In fact, around 50% of the advisers surveyed believed the amount of business that they place online with a provider’s platform will increase in the next 12 months.
This statistic shows that, while technological adoption is clearly not as ubiquitous within the international financial advice community, gradually advisers are seeing the benefits of using online platforms and choosing to integrate them into their business processes.
Advisers know the benefits
However, when the same group of advisers were asked about the key ways that technology on provider platforms can help their business, the results showed that advisers have an acute understanding of the advantages of online platforms.
- 67% thought that online platforms make business process quicker with less errors and delays;
- 69% thought that technology made it more efficient to manage clients on a daily basis (online valuations, dealing and withdrawals); and
- 63% said that technology made it easier to manage investment portfolios.
Research commissioned by Deloitte in 2018 found that 73% of respondents globally use online banking at least once a month, showing that technology within financial services is not just integrated into adviser business models, but into people’s everyday lives.
Augment but not replace
As online access becomes a greater expectation, rather than a ‘nice to have’, OMI has overhauled some of our product ranges.
One example is the Flexible Investment Account in Singapore where we have made the online usability for clients and advisers the central focus of the refresh.
As a result, the product is now fully online and gives users the opportunity to manage policies and investment portfolios and get monthly valuation statements online so that, within a touch of a few buttons, it is simple to see how the policy is performing.
But, while technology is an essential ingredient in the advice process, the importance of face to face advice can not be overlooked.
Technology can and should augment the advice process and not replace it.
This is best illustrated by the fact that fully-automated advice propositions, typically described as robo-advice, have so far not disturbed the market as much as they were originally forecast to.
So often with decisions about wealth and long term savings, people need the more in-depth planning of a professional adviser or further reassurance that they doing the right thing.
Technology should therefore be used to streamline the advice process and reduce the time it takes to complete tasks such as identifying and agreeing client objectives, performing risk profiling and suitability assessments, researching and selecting products, and executing transactions.
The ultimate output of this is that advisers should have more time to spend doing what they do best; which is building trust, understanding the nuances of a client’s behaviour and understanding specific client goals – all which are impossible to replicate within a machine.
Financial advice is changing thanks to technology, but at its core it will always be a people business.
This article was written by Ian Kloss, chief executive of Singapore at Old Mutual International.
