Advice Revolution chief technology officer Adrian Patty said while advice software providers had improved the ability for practitioners to send out fact finds to prospective clients ahead of an initial meeting, the laboriousness of the process often turned a number of prospects off.
“There’s been an increase in people sending things out before meetings – there’s a couple of challenges that come into that, including the ability to do that in a way that’s a good experience to the client,” Mr Patty said.
“It takes a client a bit of time to fill that out and it’s not the best experience, and also you’re often still having to re-key the data in.
“A lot of advisers still look at doing something like that to help filter out of the process, and it does get rid of people that aren’t in the right headspace to receive advice and it saves them time, but there’s an argument that advisers are turning off people that with the right journey would engage.”
Mr Patty, whose group had recently launched a free fact-find tool for advisers, said getting the process right so that data fed directly into planning software and prospective clients could be flexible about how much information they chose to provide at different points in time could lead to a dramatic uplift in adviser productivity and client engagement.
“If you look at businesses like Fox and Hare [Financial Advice] that are over-subscribed, it’s because they are adapting to the audience as they come through the journey – they are not trying to put things to block and filter people out,” he said.
“There’s an uplift available to advisers to bring in more clients if they improve that step in the process. One of the things we’ve had from our users is we’re getting reports of up to 5.5 hours being saved per [new] client, that’s adviser time so it’s massive and depending on how much you value your time it’s not hard for that to add up.”
With the rising compliance burden having forced advisers to spend more time onboarding clients and often to charge for initial meetings, Mr Patty said it was important to try to address regulatory change in a way that also promoted a positive client experience.
“There’s one adviser I’ve heard of who charges for the initial meeting and the money goes to charity,” he said.
“The clients thought that was brilliant because it connected them to a value set with the business and at the same time it’s a commitment they had to make. They had to lean into the process being set but you’re not putting a cumbersome impediment to engaging with the adviser, you’re just articulating that you are making a commitment here to this process.”
Cool, another organisation trying to get money from financial advisers. If your CRM doesn’t do this already, suggest change to one that does.
I use an initial snapshot and link to a budget calculator. No return, no appointment. If a prospect can’t act enough for us to start helping, imagine what it will be like gathering annual signatures. It is essentially a filtering tool.
Very small % of the population that would desire to complete a fact find, or even a small portion of, pre-appt. In fact, those most likely to do so are DIY types.
You might be right by using the word desire, but I have 100% of my clients complete one before the initial meeting.
Not my process or abilities in the least!!
It is all the GARBAGE handed down by our Overloards – IOOF and the corrupt ASIC syndicate
“There’s one adviser I’ve heard of who charges for the initial meeting and the money goes to charity,”
Hah! Thanks to the childish regulation this current Government has introduced and blindly allowed ASIC and FASEA to impose on this industry, MY business has now become a charity so I guess my next step to business survival is registering as exactly that – a charity!
I charge (our top) hourly rate for the initial meeting but on the understanding that we deduct it from our set annual fee once the prospectice client comes onboard. That works well while ensuring that both our time and theirs are productive.
This is the way a professional would do things! Not needing gimmicks….
Philip, do all of your clients circumstances warrant an annual service/fee though?