From Reactive to Proactive: The Expansion of Digital Growth Platforms for Wealth Managers

The days of wealth managers making do with older technology, word-of-mouth referrals, or manual processes are fading. One reason: The transfer of wealth to a younger generation requires stepping beyond the traditional methods of prospecting, constructing portfolios, generating reports, and managing communications. In this article we discuss technology solutions for prospecting and proposal monitoring, both of which are key growth drivers.

For good reasons, advisors have relied on human expertise-their own and staff members'. Not just in how they interact with clients and prospects, but also in how they analyze market trends, evaluate risks, make investment decisions, and craft proposals. While the human factor has many advantages, it also has limitations.

Fintech companies have been developing digital tools to help advisors scale their books of business and streamline workflows. Some stress AI integration as a selling point.

Prospecting

Prospecting is a mainstay in wealth managers' operations and business development. But it can be a laborious and manual effort to discern high-value prospects connected to a current client-for example, a friend, family member, or co-worker.

New tools in the market speed up the process. For example, they can proactively identify potential clients who fall within required criteria. Several data aggregators put a lot of work into building the systems, which rely upon algorithms and AI to reveal connections. Simply having a list of the 10 best prospect calls to make each morning can lead to greater success over time.

An intelligent prospecting system that accesses millions of professional profiles should be able to provide a clear overview of a client's first- and second-degree connections and networks. Aidentified is one example. It indicates income, wealth segment, location, hobbies, and contact information-all of which help advisors find their next best lead more quickly than manual research. (Aidentified has secured a $12.5 million Series B investment from FactSet.) Additional examples of platforms in digital prospecting include Microsoft's Relationship Sales, Wealth-X, and Windfall.

Relationship Maintenance

Digital prospecting and relationship intelligence platforms can provide insights that help wealth managers maintain client contact, deepen trust, and potentially increase assets under management. Engaging with clients at the right time matters. Technology solutions can help with that by signaling a major promotion, publicly filed stock option awards, or an IPO, for example.

Although a client's LinkedIn profile allows you to view all of their contacts (if you're connected to the client), it can be difficult to uncover true connections versus an acquaintance from a business conference 20 years ago. The same companies that aggregate data from myriad sources can also identify the relationships your clients already have, enabling you to tap into a direct connection to the right person.

Discovering that your client knows someone from your hometown takes a long time to uncover manually through systems such as LinkedIn's Sales Navigator or Salesforce's Sales Engagement. But prospecting platforms can easily find that important insight across your entire client base. They also can detail who the prospect is, the best person to connect you, and (with Aidentified) the strength of the relationship you're leveraging.

Tracking and Proposal Development

Advisor communications across current and prospective clients need to be documented for follow-up. Prospecting platforms are useful for that. They can also track prospective clients by status-such as found, contacted, meeting arranged, proposal sent, proposal viewed, and so on.

Systems can be built to analyze successful and unsuccessful leads. This can help wealth management firms refine their models and materials to increase win rates.

The creation of a visually appealing and data-rich proposal is an art unto itself. The process involves goal confirmation, data input, financial analysis, and investment recommendations.

According to a recent Cerulli webinar, satisfaction with proposal generation is the lowest among all technology tools that wealth management companies currently use. However, streamlined digital platforms can read PDF statements, create an overview of the existing portfolio(s), render comparison tables and charts, and deliver a fully branded report through a client portal.

Stepping Beyond Traditional Methods

The expansion of digital prospecting and relationship intelligence platforms for wealth management is not just a response to changing demographics within advisor and client worlds. It's a necessity to stay competitive in an increasingly digital environment and evolving client needs.

By embracing new tools, advisors become more proactive while strengthening current client relationships and their approach to prospects. They also can spend their prospecting time more effectively and efficiently to serve clients and grow their books of business.

Learn More: Solutions for Wealth Management Firms

Fulfill your clients' financial goals with sophisticated content, research, analytics, and reports all in one comprehensive platform. And to learn how generative AI can revolutionize the way advisors capture data, generate client-centric outputs, and integrate seamless workflows, view our webcast replay: Streamline for Success-Generative AI's Role in Advisor Business Growth.

This blog post is for informational purposes only. The information contained in this blog post is not legal, tax, or investment advice. FactSet does not endorse or recommend any investments and assumes no liability for any consequence relating directly or indirectly to any action or inaction taken based on the information contained in this article.

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