| Innovation race: Tech set to transform wealth management
From whiling away long lockdown nights (and days) binging on box sets, to keeping in contact with friends and family via video calls, the coronavirus pandemic has brought the importance of technology in our day-to-day lives into the sort of sharp focus usually only experienced on the latest big screen 4K TVs.
Joking aside though, tech is ubiquitous and it’s now almost impossible to imagine life without an internet connected smartphone, tablet or laptop to call on. And while the wealth management industry may not be up there with the pacesetters in the innovation race, as Russell Andrews Head of Solutions and Marketing at SEI’s Distribution Division points out in a comment piece this week, the sector has the ambition – and potential – for a technological transformation.
According to Andrews, wealthtech to date has largely been deployed from a utility perspective helping to increase the speed, efficiency and cost of doing business. By thinking big though, and listening to the needs of both advisers and their clients, tech providers will be able to “help enable wealth management businesses to start to re-imagine some of the more impactful components of their proposition or even beyond the proposition itself," says Andrews.
With a new survey by CoreData Research revealing that 20 per cent of UK financial advisers expect the effects of the Covid-19 crisis to prompt more of their peers to exit the industry than left following the Retail Distribution Review (RDR) of 2013, perhaps new tech tools and systems can play a part in helping the wealth management and financial advice sector deal with the challenges of the new normal?
The same survey also suggests that 40 per cent of advisers expect the UK's financial advice gap to widen post-coronavirus, while a new report from Fidelity International says that when it comes to seeking professional advice, men aged between 18 and 34 are almost twice as likely to turn to a financial adviser as women of the same age.
The pandemic meanwhile, has prompted over a million over-60s to rethink their later life care according to research by Canada Life with over half (55 per cent) yet to decide how they will fund it.
"This pandemic has changed the way we’re thinking about our futures and how we want to spend them, and ultimately, it’s the industry’s responsibility to ensure advisers have the tools to engage with their clients effectively, offering them the most suitable solutions," says Canada Life's Alice Watson.
And finally back to our increasing reliance on technology and a cautionary note from the Investment Association which says fraudsters are targeting retail investors in new, sophisticated and large-scale scams, involving fake price comparison websites and bogus products.
“Fraud and scams come in many different disguises," says Chris Cummings, Chief Executive of the Investment Association. "That’s why today we urge savers and investors to be as vigilant as possible to protect their investments and think very carefully about the risks criminals pose to their financial wellbeing."
Wealth Adviser
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