The race to roll out digital services among financial advisory firms has been growing for several years, but the global remote-working environment fuelled by the pandemic has created a need for more.
Over the last 18 months, firms have had to adopt a digital offering due to a general inability to meet clients face-to-face, however, a large portion of consumers have started to favour tech-based solutions compared to the traditional advice model.
Analysis by independent research house Boring Money revealed that of the 12.5 million UK adults who fall into the advice gap, half (around 6.3m) expressed a preference for digital advice offerings. The main reasons for their choice were lower perceived costs and greater convenience and flexibility.
As a result, the research firm has teamed up with seven UK companies, a mix of established national businesses and start-ups, to create the Digital Advice Group (DAG) to provide hybrid offerings combining technology and face to face services.
The founding businesses are: Abrdn, Barclays, Hub (Destination Retirement), OpenMoney, NetWealth, Vanguard, and Wealth Wizards (My Eva).
The group will promote the benefits of financial advice and alternatives to the traditional face-to-face models, but it warned that such services will “not be suitable for everyone”.
Boring Money chief executive and DAG chair Holly Mackay said: “We set up Boring Money to help consumers to make better choices. But sometimes people’s questions are not about products, but advice.
“Most consumers are unaware that their advice options have expanded, opening up financial advice to younger people, to people who want to pay less, or to people who want a more convenient, digital solution which can be done largely from the comfort of their own home. Awareness remains very low – it’s our mission to spread the word and to support confident choices.”
Three-in-one
Elsewhere, global digital solutions provider InvestCloud has rolled out three platforms for advisers.
Called InvestCloud X, the rage comprises of a digital communications, digital planning, and a digital shopping platform.
The first offering will boost communication between advisers and clients by enabling the creation of custom experiences that can be optimised for an unlimited number of customers and can be accessible via both mobile and desktop.
The second platform offers comprehensive digital plans at any stage of the “wealth continuum”, the firm said, and will cover basic goal-based planning all the way to tax and estate planning.
The last one will work as an “Amazon-like marketplace” for financial products aimed at distributors and manufacturers.
InvestCloud co-founder and chief executive John Wise said: “The ability to work on plans at different age and wealth moments, then immediately select financial products to achieve these plans, and then monitor, report and communicate in one platform and product is a game-changer.”
