Advice360°: Unlocking Advisor Productivity – Part Two

Advice360° is a series designed to help advisors increase their productivity using our digital wealth management software. 

In this installment, Meredith Connell, Advisor360°’s Sr. Product Manager of Wealth Management, explains how our solutions can help unlock advisor productivity throughout the wealth management process.  

In part one of this blog series, my colleague Patrick Noonan focused on how our technology unlocks advisor productivity while they are marketing their practice and creating financial plans.  

Today, I’m going to focus on the next two facets of helping clients reach their financial goals—executing the plan and monitoring its progress—and how our solutions increase efficiency and give advisors time back in their busy day. 

Executing the Plan

Once a financial plan has been created and shared with the client via our Client Portal, advisors need to turn toward executing the plan they’ve laid out. Our solutions inject productivity throughout this workflow, which is carried out using our Digital Onboarding and Managed Accounts solutions: 

1. Account Opening: Open multiple accounts, regardless of account type, in a single transaction. Advisors can leverage the data collected up to this point—whether it be from WealthGuide®, the CRM, or the proposal they created—to pre-fill all relevant client information, reducing data entry and saving both the advisor and client time. Account paperwork is then bundled into a single envelope, resulting in a streamlined e-signing event for clients.
   
2. Funding the Account: Use the previously collected data to populate funding information, reducing the time it takes to fund accounts. We offer multiple funding options on our platform that are integrated within the account opening workflow, which helps create efficiencies and can speed up the account funding process. Advisors can provide various instructions when opening accounts, including transfers of assets and standing EFT instructions. Advisors can also leverage our mobile check deposit capability to deposit checks into newly created custodial accounts.
3. Managing Models: Implement and refine models efficiently, whether looking at a single account or across the practice, allowing advisors to execute multiple plans at scale.  

Reviewing and Maintaining the Plan

Account funding is now complete, and the advisor needs to periodically review both the performance and activity of the accounts, as well as develop the advisor-client relationship. Because this workflow is ongoing, the advisor must be able to efficiently review, supervise, and maintain the client’s financial plan—and our Data and Reporting, Advisor Experience, and Digital Onboarding solutions do just that. 

• Performance Reporting: Run reports across investments, insurance, and financial planning at both the household and practice levels. By leveraging our 1-Click Review® feature, advisors reduce meeting prep to a matter of minutes by bundling over 100 configurable reports and exporting them into one document.  
• Supervision Solutions: Receive alerts when clients are due for an annual review using our annual client review capability. Advisors can review notes from past annual reviews in one place, setting the stage for thoughtful conversations and actionable advice come meeting time. This capability streamlines the meeting review process, automating repetitive tasks such as:
  • Populating essential fields
  • Updating contact dates 
  • Tagging an advisor to the account 
• Account Maintenance: Take advantage of our robust notifications system and receive proactive alerts that allow advisors to cut through the noise, bringing their attention to accounts that need updating. As client and account information changes overtime, that information can be updated directly in the platform, saving advisors from having to manually sort through accounts that need their attention. 

Our Solutions Unlock Productivity Potential

At the end of the day, technology has the power to increase success and productivity, leaving both advisors and their clients satisfied. 

That’s why Advisor360° takes pride in building and delivering a configurable set of solutions that infuses efficiencies throughout the wealth management process, providing firms and advisors the resources for long-term success. 

Meredith Connell is a Sr. Product Manager for Wealth Management. As a Certified Financial Planner (CFP®), Meredith defines and oversees product features that improve advisor, investor, and home office efficiencies, with a focus on Digital Onboarding capabilities.