It has been almost 10 years since early B2C robo advisors launched their products and since then, the market has grown exponentially. Incumbents such as Blackrock, UBS, Vanguard and Charles Schwab have entered the space with their own robo advisory models. With increase in competition, the end customer benefits from transparent and low cost investing.

Robo advisors started out to help firms serve clients that were previously ignored. Clients with low investable assets were typically not being served because of the high cost associated with the financial advice process and the underlying financial products being sold. Using robo advisors, firms can now extend their services to a wider range of clients including first time investors and mass affluent customers. What’s more surprising is that recent studies show that much of robo advisor customer base is of higher income, and asset levels.

Retail investors now have access to customised portfolios by answering a few questions to gauge their risk profile and also take into account their time horizon. Firms are using the technology and automation to commoditise processes and provide more sophisticated alternatives when compared to traditional wealth management firms. Clients benefit from greater transparency, lower cost, wider range of financial products and better services across multiple channels.

More than just serving client’s needs, robo advisors help firms and financial advisors understand how their clients are reacting to the customer journey and market trends which help them communicate with their clients more effectively.

With digital wealth software, firms will have data on how their clients are reacting across multiple touch points – from the time they visit their website to onboarding to investing to tracking. This data is in addition to huge amounts of existing data ranging from demographic data to spending patterns to branch banking. Unfortunately, the data and processes in most firms are traditionally in silos. For example, information collected on the website and in-person branch banking data is kept on two different servers. All the silos data has different technical structures and also different customer information making it difficult for firms to update all their systems and roll out new features. Firms require technology and systems to be integrated, flexible and scalable in such a way that it helps them easily identify patterns and serve customers in an omnichannel manner.

Data is the new oil and it is crucial for firms to be able to capitalise on this data. Facebook newsfeed has come a long way in delivering posts relevant to the user’s interest and so has Google search, to the extent that you don’t even have to complete the sentence. Similarly, customers expect personalised recommendations from financial institutions.

Delivering such solutions require an innovative and agile approach – a modular API based approach. Modular APIs with a unified data platform provide a base structure that connects to the original platform designed to easily add new features or remove existing features without overhauling their current systems. These platforms will fundamentally transform the way Financial Institutions approach technology enabling them to solve technical problems, identify customer trends and go to market faster.

At WealthObjects, we have a fully integrated modular API based platform that helps firms launch any business model at a faster time to the market with superior automation technologies. Today, a firm might want to launch a purely digital B2C robo advisory proposition and tomorrow, that might turn into a Hybrid model with human advisors. The platform seamlessly integrates into existing systems, and firms can easily add or remove features and any financial products to suit their needs.

Digital wealth management software reduces operational costs allowing firms to increase productivity, increase agility and remain client focussed, and not product focussed. Firms can concentrate on speed to market and build products for a multi-channel environment redefining how value is delivered to the customer.

WealthObjects provides B2B robo advisory, financial planning and engagement ready made platform or modular APIs for consumer banks, fund managers, investment firms and insurance firms. We help firms launch a customised and automated digital wealth proposition faster and at a fraction of the cost.

Our aim is to be 'The Wealth Tech Specialist'. Our purpose is 'Taking Wealth Digital'.