Any wealth manager that fails to engage clients has always and will always be set for failure. That will never change and is a core aspect of any successful business, regardless of sector. Yet the topic of engaging clients, as with many topics around the wealth management sector, is changing. On the one hand it is becoming more complex as the nature of who the client is, what they want and how to engage them continues to evolve. But, on the other hand, it is also being enabled as the range of technology & data-driven options available continues to grow and evolve.

Historically, engaging clients was primarily the job of the advisor/relationship manager/private banker and often originated from some form of personal referral whether from friends and family, colleagues or a professional. Any marketing activity just served to back that up. From there, while other influencers such as the product and service mix might have contributed (though many argue these are too undifferentiated), it would more often than not then come down to personal chemistry between the client and the client-facing staff. A pretty simple model.

Other factors like the product and service mix, investment performance, reporting, brand and other aspects of marketing certainly had impact, but the industry has never really got far beyond its historical obsession as being all about people and personal relationships. The net effect of that, we would argue, is that the process of client engagement remains too simplistic and therefore limited in its opportunity but also open for a revolution.

Indeed, as times, expectations and opportunities change, the client engagement model of the wealth management sector is set for change, driven by a new breed of technology & data-led tools. More insight, more focus, more relevance, more responsive, better timing, and so on. Whether with the advisor or not, these tools are here and can up the sector’s game.

We have these solutions categorised within our Client Engagement & Management business need category, which sits within our first marketplace, Technology & Data. This is where we will capture these solutions and build filters and various resources around them to support the market’s discovery of them, understanding of what they are and engagement with them.

Highlighted solutions
Within our Client Engagement & Management category, solutions and firms that have engaged with our vision and which fit this trend include:

• additiv Advisor by additiv – a solution that allows the advisor to record and send individual buy and sell recommendations, advice and invitations to events quickly and easily (http://www.thewealthmosaic.com/product/additiv-advisor/)
• Delio by Delio – a platform that enables wealth managers to build new private asset propositions or digitise existing ones (http://www.thewealthmosaic.com/product/delio/)
• Interactive Advisor by Adviscent –a research content management system that allows the creation, management and distribution of investment advice to clients, prospects and client advisors from a single platform (http://www.thewealthmosaic.com/product/interactive-advisor/)
• moneyinfo wealth by moneyinfo – a client portal that aggregates an entire financial life across investments, savings, pensions, property, banking, mortgages, credit cards and insurance (http://www.thewealthmosaic.com/product/moneyinfo-wealth/)

Other solutions of note
While other firms and solutions that we see as enhancing the client engagement process include: Advisor Briefcase by Advicent Solutions, Adobe Experience Manager by Adobe, Asset-Map Platform by Asset-Map, The A+LIFE Family Pentagon by Aspida360, Financial DNA by DNA Behavior, Customer Recommendation Engine by DST Systems, Smart Digital Content by Finantix, Investrack Advisor by Globacom, Hearsay 360 by Hearsay Systems, IBM Watson Client Insight for Wealth Management by IBM, Content Intelligence Platform by idio, Quill by Narrative Science, novastone for finance by novastone media, Conectus by Objectway, Digital Experience Platform by quadient, Financial Services Cloud by Salesforce, VOCHub by SandSIV, The Smartleaf Experience Engine by Smartleaf, SuiteBox by SuiteBox and OpenTok by TokBox.

Broad areas of focus
What we see is that solutions that can support the client engagement process are not just client relationship management tools (which we will come back to soon). This area is now much broader and might include some form of digital delivery, tools that get new products and information to clients easily and interactively, video-enabled tools, new platforms for communicating, systems that support a better understanding of the client, and so on.

Ultimately, all of this means that the ways in wealth managers can engage clients is evolving to the benefit of both the client and the wealth manager. We will look further into the trends soon.

Our Client Engagement & Management business need category
For us, as we continue to discover and understand these solutions, it is very clear that these technologies have a big role to play in the area of client engagement. Furthermore, if the market does engage and really deploy them to their potential, they surely offer the opportunity to drive new, better and more long-term client engagement.

Our Client Engagement & Management business need category is available here: http://www.thewealthmosaic.com/needs/client-engagement-management/

#wealthischanging #wealthknowledge #wealthsolutions #wealthmustadapt