Private banking and wealth management clients are a lot more tech savvy and a lot smarter than they were just a few years ago. This makes them a rather demanding group. The world of private banking and wealth management however, has not been able to keep up with the pace of change. Every single aspect of the industry has been screaming for progress yet the conservative culture combined by the added weight of regulatory change and the shell shock of the financial crisis has created an industry that is reactive rather than proactive. Change is only done when forced upon it. This type of business culture is rather far from boosting growth.
To make my point, allow me to give you a simple example of something that is at the very core of the business of managing wealth and which is changing rapidly; relationship management.
A decade ago client meetings were easy. I would wine and dine the client and then somewhere during the gateaux, just before the cognac, I’d mentioned the client’s portfolio, show them a three page print out of their portfolio with a bar chart of the past twelve months’ performance and then we’d stick our noses in a snifter and ask for cigars. Glory days ladies and gents, glory days.
While we still get to have the odd long lunch or two (old habits die hard) the clients’ demands for information, how it is delivered, presented and consumed has changed completely. Clients, regardless of age demographic, are using tablets and mobile apps to follow and find new investment opportunities and yes, even new financial services providers. It simply isn’t enough anymore for a relationship manager to walk into a client meeting with a brochure or two and a print out of the client’s portfolio, there has to be more!
Mobile wealth management apps are right at the heart of the clients’ changing behaviour. Most retail banks have some form of mobile app that a client can conduct their day-to-day banking business on, yet many private banks and wealth managers don’t offer mobile apps for their clients. Do wealth managers really think that their clients are only following their investments on paper documents sent by their wealth manager? Clients are downloading third party mobile apps to their smart phones and tablets, allowing them to follow and analyse their portfolios. Every industry senior executive should think about that for a moment: Your clients are using outside providers to manage the investments they have with you. This results in a) You appear out of date b) Your client is open to the solicitation of their business by your competitors c) You don’t have access to what data the client is using.
A wealth manager should attempt to make sure that when a client is involved with their investments, that client is interacting with no one else other than the wealth manager. That means providing up to date information and tools for the client to use under the wealth manager’s own name. This isn’t a difficult task to achieve, there are wealth management solution providers which offer mobile apps that can work in conjunction with an existing wealth management system. For example, PROFILE Software has a mobile app called Mobius, which can be integrated with the current back office software and it can be white labelled. It’s secure and meets regulatory requirements. Everything for the client is there, under one umbrella (I do like that word umbrella): Analytics, real time portfolio management and trading.
When your client wants to or needs to do something with their portfolio they will automatically be connecting to you, not someone else. You not only get to keep your client happy and informed. You get to keep your client and more!
To make my point, allow me to give you a simple example of something that is at the very core of the business of managing wealth and which is changing rapidly; relationship management.
A decade ago client meetings were easy. I would wine and dine the client and then somewhere during the gateaux, just before the cognac, I’d mentioned the client’s portfolio, show them a three page print out of their portfolio with a bar chart of the past twelve months’ performance and then we’d stick our noses in a snifter and ask for cigars. Glory days ladies and gents, glory days.
While we still get to have the odd long lunch or two (old habits die hard) the clients’ demands for information, how it is delivered, presented and consumed has changed completely. Clients, regardless of age demographic, are using tablets and mobile apps to follow and find new investment opportunities and yes, even new financial services providers. It simply isn’t enough anymore for a relationship manager to walk into a client meeting with a brochure or two and a print out of the client’s portfolio, there has to be more!
Mobile wealth management apps are right at the heart of the clients’ changing behaviour. Most retail banks have some form of mobile app that a client can conduct their day-to-day banking business on, yet many private banks and wealth managers don’t offer mobile apps for their clients. Do wealth managers really think that their clients are only following their investments on paper documents sent by their wealth manager? Clients are downloading third party mobile apps to their smart phones and tablets, allowing them to follow and analyse their portfolios. Every industry senior executive should think about that for a moment: Your clients are using outside providers to manage the investments they have with you. This results in a) You appear out of date b) Your client is open to the solicitation of their business by your competitors c) You don’t have access to what data the client is using.
A wealth manager should attempt to make sure that when a client is involved with their investments, that client is interacting with no one else other than the wealth manager. That means providing up to date information and tools for the client to use under the wealth manager’s own name. This isn’t a difficult task to achieve, there are wealth management solution providers which offer mobile apps that can work in conjunction with an existing wealth management system. For example, PROFILE Software has a mobile app called Mobius, which can be integrated with the current back office software and it can be white labelled. It’s secure and meets regulatory requirements. Everything for the client is there, under one umbrella (I do like that word umbrella): Analytics, real time portfolio management and trading.
When your client wants to or needs to do something with their portfolio they will automatically be connecting to you, not someone else. You not only get to keep your client happy and informed. You get to keep your client and more!
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