Blending micro services and the human touch to deliver great client outcomes.

Consolidation and growth of financial advice firms in the UK continues unabated and one of the key issues many national and other large advisory companies encounter is how to scale up their business, while continuing to deliver a high-quality personalised service both digitally and with the personal touch.

What clients increasingly expect these days (and in the future), is the ability to be educated and informed regarding their finances, to undertake straightforward transactions themselves, but also have access to financial planning help when needed, and importantly, all within a trusted environment. This is the consumer-led, human-assisted advice service (offering hybrid capabilities) which a growing number of mid to large advice firms, wealth management companies and banks are increasingly rolling out.

Micro services can deliver right across the client spectrum for advice firms and other organisations providing financial guidance and advice This includes guidance and simple codified (automated) advice through to fully automated and 'human-assisted' advice. 

For clients with simpler needs, a consumer-led guidance and simple codified advice proposition can be an effective way of attracting new customers, introducing them to new products and starting a long-term relationship. 

Clients who have more complex cases and/or who require recommendation refinements, can be guided to a triage service. The client still receives codified advice, but in an environment where a human adviser is overseeing the process as either the ‘co-pilot’ or who can override the codified advice, for example in complex areas of financial planning such as retirement or consolidation. 
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Clients are encouraged to engage with the digital interface, where they can play with the tools that personalises the journey with a wealth of digestible content, and then to take action to improve their financial wellbeing. That could be through guided outcomes or fully-fledged regulated advice.

This is working well for large advice firms, banks and wealth management firms who can serve their growing numbers of lower net worth clients with guidance and simple advice – with the option of triaging them into full codified advice where required. Crucially, it also provides a more efficient and frictionless experience for their high-net-worth clients with a combination of codified and human-assisted advice.

Overall, for the advice firm this reduces process time and creates more relationship time for each adviser, which in turn enables the firm to serve more clients to a fully complaint standard.

For example, we’ve been working with a tier one bank for over three years. They have over 35 retirement advisers who use our codified advice daily to consolidate legacy retirement pots and direct their clients to the most suitable at-retirement solution, using an effective blend of codified and human advice. 

Importantly, by engaging clients through the micro-services approach, the bank can deliver exactly the level of service required by the client at that time, helping to improve their financial wellbeing and creating the trusted environment that will see referrals occur naturally.

Through consumer-led, human-assisted advice, we believe the financial advice market can make great strides to improve people’s financial wellbeing (which several research studies have shown a direct correlation with mental and physical wellbeing also) and help close the advice gap.

The micro services approach enables firms to implement tools in a way that satisfies client needs and at a pace that suits the firm’s business model.

To learn more about how consumer-led and human-assisted guidance and advice and help grow your firm and enhance your client experience please email me at simon.binney@wealthwizards.com