Beyond new lifestyle Apps cropping up on a client’s Smartphone, a number of financial institutions are now developing iPad wealth Apps designed to help advisors prepare for and conduct face-to-face client meetings. While industry observers will probably be familiar with valuation-type Apps already in the retail bank space, it becomes apparent that the private banking industry will want tablet applications that enhance the client’s experience.
A client on-boarding App is designed to help advisors build up a comprehensive picture of a client’s financial situation and future needs in a fraction of the time. Advisors are able to say “do you recognise yourself here” and then by having clients select or deselect items or tweak metrics such as retirement income requirements a holistic picture can be built up quickly and vividly. Put simply these Apps will help “make it easier to fact find” and create a “real dialogue faster,”.
While IT departments have historically been driving technological advances at private banking firms, nowadays it is the advisors themselves, many of whom have iPads, who are driving change. Having seen what the tablet could do in a non-work capacity, advisors look to make the consultative process more interactive and easy to understand.
Counter-intuitively, most resistance tends to come from IT departments worried about security and implementation. Here too technology is leading the way, firstly, controls on data downloads ensure that only a certain, flexible number of clients’ datasets can be transferred to the iPad at any one time, ruling out large scale data thefts by disgruntled employees. Data can also be set to “perish” after a set period of time, and another security feature is the ability to anonymize client data preventing, for instance, clients’ details being read “over the shoulder” of the advisor. Perhaps most James Bond-like is the ability to essentially make the data “self destruct” through a remote delete function if the device is lost or stolen.
While it remains to be seen how central a role tablet and Smartphone-based technology will play in the industry going forward, it will be safe to assume that what now looks slick and futuristic will quickly become industry standard. First users will not only streamline processes and trim costs, but also provide a key differentiator in the battle for wallet share.
Adapted from Wealthbriefing by Louay Al-Doory
Looking forward to seeing the Reyl App!