Advisors and New Technology
Advisor360°
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Advisors are increasingly aware that gaps in technology can affect their livelihood. According to our 2024 Connected Wealth Report, 58% of advisors have lost clients and prospects due to outdated solutions. These same advisors noted that both the front- and back-offices have technology gaps that are leading to lost business—which creates an advantage for firms that have access to the best platform of tools and solutions.?
So what are advisors looking for in technology solutions, and how can firms provide the tools they need to be productive and grow??
Changing established technology or processes can be difficult; not every advisor will embrace change or feel it is relevant for his/her business. Inaction, though, is not an option for firms focused on growth, revenue, or maintaining relationships with established tech-savvy and next-gen clients.?
This month’s?contributors John O’Connell, Kevin McCrossin, Joe Moss, Jennifer Sawan, and Suzanne Bohs share their insights on gaining technology buy-in, generational differences across advisors, and the importance of data solutions and technology integrations.???
Enjoy this edition of Connect360° newsletter—and please leave a comment and follow us on LinkedIn to join the conversation.?
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The Change Challenge?
Advisors want access to new tools and technology, but our contributors made the case that the adoption process itself presents legitimate challenges that firms need to overcome. ?
Kevin McCrossin, Managing Director of Business Development at Moment, says, “change in and of itself can be the greatest barrier to adoption. Advisors are people—and many might struggle through their daily routine, no matter how suboptimal, because the idea of trying something new can be overwhelming.”??
In addition to the change challenge, training programs that miss the mark are another barrier to a firm’s ability to gain buy-in from their advisors. “Many firms struggle with the technical support and training required to implement new technologies. This leads to missed expectations and sliding timelines,” explains John O’Connell, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of The Oasis Group.?
Despite the occasionally rocky road to implementing technology updates, Advisor360°’s Senior Director of Sales Engineering & Operations Jennifer Sawan believes there are ways for firms to break down the barriers to advisor acceptance. "Firms can build buy-in from their advisors by inviting them into the decision process, leveraging pilot programs with software providers, measuring adoption rates, and having a solid change management plan.” Sawan went on to suggest, “firms can also find a partner or vendor that has its own change management team to bridge knowledge gaps and leverage best practices from prior implementations.”??
McCrossin echoes the idea of buy-in, saying, “get a group of advisors involved early to pilot the tech build, I have seen firms roll out what they assume advisors need without actually asking the audience.”?McCrossin suggested that peers can help get advisors “excited about new tools and solutions” and ease the process to adoption.?
“Change in and of itself can be the greatest barrier.”—Kevin McCrossin?
The generational divide?
As our contributors shared, including advisors in the decision process accelerates buy-in. But the desire for new technology may be different across generations. ?
Suzanne Bohs, VP of Product Management at Advisor360°, explains, “next-gen advisors may differ from established advisors in their approach to incorporating technology and data into how they serve clients. They?often leverage advanced tools, AI, and data analytics to enhance decision making and provide more personalized services. They tend to be more tech-savvy and adaptable to emerging trends, while established advisors might rely on traditional methods and have a more conservative approach that may work for their clients.”?
Emphasizing this point, O’Connell shares that the next-gen advisors “expect a fully digital account opening experience, integrated CRM and financial planning solutions, and a streamlined trading experience within their advisor portal. They also expect a mobile client experience for their emerging wealth clients.” She added that many of the established or legacy wealth management technologies fail to provide these capabilities.?
While our contributors noted that some younger advisors are inherently tech-savvy, Sawan recognizes?a shift from established advisors as well, saying “we’re seeing an evolution in thinking by established advisors over the years—moving more than ever towards a technology enabled, collaborative wealth management process.” ?
“Next-gen advisors differ from established advisors in their approach to incorporating technology and data into the services they offer.”—Suzanne Bohs?
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The best practices?
Bypassing barriers and understanding?generational preferences is a great start—but leveraging best practices and understanding state-of-the-art technology trends can offer firms a real advantage in terms of productivity. The big question for our contributors is, what’s most important to firms and advisors now??
According to Joe Moss, Co-Founder of ProAdvisorSuite and Curator of the Conneqtor community, “integration is the number one technology issue advisors mention.”?
Bohs sums the point up crisply, saying, “it's crucial for firms to seamlessly integrate new technology into the platform, ensuring it supports advisors in their regular routines without causing disruptions.”??
Bohs adds that data is a main ingredient for integration. “Our goal at Advisor360° is to leverage all collected data—enabling seamless implementation of platform features with minimal effort. As we take data in from feeds or CRM, we can integrate this information into our various tools like account opening, planning or our models platform, saving advisors effort and allowing them to concentrate on the task at hand.” ?
A second imperative mentioned by our contributors is a robust partner ecosystem.?
McCrossin sees this as table stakes. “I have yet to see a company that has the ‘silver bullet’ of solutions that is best at everything. Building strong partnerships allows each firm to bring best-in-class solutions to the market and innovate what they are great at,” he explains.??
Moreover, O’Connell believes, “too many technology vendors overstate their open architecture or application programming interface (API) capabilities. Advisors should dig deeper on these sales pitches to understand how data moves from one application to another. We highly encourage advisors to ask questions to get to the bottom of the integration capabilities.”??
Bohs advises advisors to understand the signs of a best-in-class integration, saying, “a genuine integration provides users with the advantages of seamlessly aligning with the platform they are transitioning from so they complete their task in the most efficient way.”?
?“We highly encourage advisors to ask questions beyond the demonstration to get to the bottom of the integration capabilities.”—John O’Connell?
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Failure is not an option?
What happens when firms drag their feet or fail to implement new technologies? Our contributors painted a vivid picture.?
Sawan says that “inaction is not an option” if you want to remain relevant and grow your business. “Technology is moving so quickly, and advisor, support staff, and client expectations are high. When they run into limitations with existing service providers, it forces them to consider other options.”??
Moss completed that thought, saying “the more innovative firms will grow more quickly and possibly win business away from the outdated firms.”?
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O’Connell shares his take, saying, “we frequently encounter advisory firms that stick with technology solutions that do not fit their business processes or their size. The result is many 'workarounds' that waste time and energy. This limits these firms’ ability to grow, and their client service suffers.”?He recommends that firms evaluate their technology stack every two years (at a minimum) to ensure that they are using the best solutions to maintain their growth trajectory.?
McCrossin offers a savvy summary, saying, “if a firm is not empowering its advisors to deliver best in class solutions to their end clients, someone else will.”?
“Inaction is not an option if you want to remain relevant and grow your business.”—Jennifer Sawan?
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Please leave a comment and let us know how you enjoyed this conversation around advisors and new technology. See what other industry experts are saying about advisor buy-in and new technologies: https://www.advisor360.com/blog/how-to-get-your-seasoned-advisors-to-adopt-new-technology?
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About our contributors:?
John is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer for The Oasis Group. A firm specializing in helping wealth management and technology firms to solve their most complex challenges. The Oasis Group helps firms with technology selection and implementation, cybersecurity, data management, artificial intelligence, and sales processes and strategy.?
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Kevin is currently Managing Director of Business Development for Moment, a firm who is modernizing fixed income trading for wealth platforms. He also has extensive experience in the managed account and TAMP space serving both the RIA and Broker Dealer communities.??
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Joe is the Co-Founder of ProAdvisorSuite and the new Curator of the Conneqtor community.? In his day-to-day, you’ll find Joe posting on LinkedIn, scheduling tech demos, talking with advisors about their tech stack, and promoting community and innovation in the advisortech space.?
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Jennifer Sawan focuses on leading platform engagement inside of and outside of Advisor360°, helping employees better understand our platform and leveraging tools and data to enable those outside of Advisor360° to do the same.?
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Suzanne oversees the client-facing roadmap and long-term vision for the Advisor360° product. She champions the Advisor360° customer while ensuring the platform adheres to the ever-changing landscape of the wealth management industry. Suzanne is responsible for implementing our current digital onboarding system, model management platform, and the new advisor experience.?
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