Speaking ahead of the Adviser Innovation 2015 event in Melbourne and Sydney in July, Netwealth joint managing director Matt Heine said financial advisers need to innovate in “more ways than just technology”.
“At the end of the day innovation is really around customer-centricity,” Mr Heine said.
Netwealth is the major partner of Adviser Innovation 2015, which is aimed at financial advisers who want to build the sustainable advice practices of the future.
“Those that understand the customer really well or are able to uncover deep insights about their customers are the ones that have the true ability to go out and solve a problem,” Mr Heine said.
“Unless you really understand what it is you’re trying to do or why you’re trying to innovate, you’re going to miss the mark.”
While there is a “huge amount” of fintech activity targeting advice, there is no standout financial planning brand in Australia, he said.
“We’re not seeing anyone that’s known for outstanding innovation within [customer] service,” Mr Heine said.
Financial advice firms should be examining their marketing, service, brand and pricing, he said.
“As an industry we’ve become very attached to traditional models and now it’s time start to break those open.
“We need to look at how we might repackage what we do in far more interesting ways that better serve the customer,” he said.
When it comes to branding, the financial planning industry is suffering from a lot of “bad press” and needs to reinvent itself, he said.
“The traditional model is largely broken and will continue to be broken by regulatory overlay,” Mr Heine added.
To see Matt Heine speak at Adviser Innovation 2015, click here to book your ticket.
I read this with interest and experience. What better way to serve a customer than to provide “balanced” advice, not just in the arena we play in. How many advisers out there that won’t (not can’t) provide a bridge between them and other licensed service providers? As a large accountancy we audited our service offerings and as a result, designed our own compliant property investment formula, introduced it to our clients and at the same time built bridges with independent licensed financial planning, and mortgage broking advisers, solicitors and other accounting practices. We have all benefitted in many ways not only financially but in client satisfaction and retention.
Matt is absolutely spot on, technology itself is not the solution. However, customer centric service models require efficient application of technology to bring down the cost to serve.
I feel we’re missing the opportunity at the moment to focus our energy on the compliance burden built to contain the conflicted nature of advice. We must move away from all forms of fee conflict and reduce those fees to a price point the consumer will pay. Implementation of advice be it insurance or investments WILL be replaced by FinTech companies. What these Fintech’s don’t typically address is that the mass market doesn’t know what they want to implement and don’t trust themselves to make the decision.
The future will be a mix of personal advice and automated execution and the regulatory framework doesn’t support this future. – It’s here that we need to focus our energy.