Although most financial advisors utilize a tech stack for various functions, many wealthtech capabilities go unnoticed, either because they are not the primary service of a tech provider or because advisors are generally unaware of how a feature works. This can lead to advisors not taking full advantage of all the tools and features available to them, some of which may already be features of their tech stacks.
We spoke with three founders and CEOs of wealthtech firms to learn where advisors are missing the benefits of lesser-known digital tools. Christopher King, Founder and CEO of Eaglebrook; James Rockwood, Founder and CEO of CapIntel; and Arnulf Hsu, Founder and CEO of GReminders, walk us through examples of some relatively unknown features that advisors often miss.
Christopher King, Founder And CEO, Eaglebrook
Finding new avenues to raise assets is often challenging for advisors, with competition making it difficult to differentiate one’s practice.
In a Bitwise survey, 59% of clients were investing in cryptocurrency in 2023, while only 15% of RIAs allocated to crypto on their clients’ behalf. This disconnect presents a unique opportunity to deepen client relationships, access a new subset of prospects and seamlessly integrate crypto into an advisor’s practice.
Advisors can reach these untapped assets and provide incremental value by engaging clients who own crypto and offering in-kind transfers through a crypto investment platform. Advisors can generate substantial and differentiated value for their client relationships by providing this service.
In-kind transfers provide efficient, straightforward and direct transfer of crypto from a retail account to an account under the advisor’s discretion without a tax event. Using a bitcoin ETF would require the client to sell their bitcoin held on a retail exchange, transfer the cash under the advisor’s discretion and buy the bitcoin ETF.
Given the increase in value over the last five years, a client’s crypto portfolio could be a significant portion of their overall portfolio. By bringing the assets under the advisor’s purview, the crypto assets are more secure with institutional-grade security and incremental safety measures provided by the crypto investment platform. This enhanced security makes the assets less susceptible to scams and user error, providing peace of mind in an emerging asset class.
With their assets entirely under the wealth manager’s discretion and care, clients will receive comprehensive financial advice based on their entire portfolio. Wealth managers can now create a wealth and legacy plan that includes clients’ crypto portfolios.
James Rockwood, Founder And CEO, CapIntel
Ensemble advisor teams are becoming increasingly vital in the wealth management industry to deliver holistic client service. However, a significant challenge persists in streamlining essential tasks, such as KYC completion and portfolio management, within these teams. This limitation not only burdens individual advisors with administrative tasks but also hampers overall team efficiency and client focus.
According to J.D. Power’s 2023 U.S. Financial Advisor Satisfaction Study, 28% of advisors say they do not have enough time to spend with clients. Advisors falling into this category spend an average of 41% more time each month than their peers on non-value-added tasks, such as compliance and administrative duties.
Our firm provides a feature, called “Delegates,” that addresses this issue by enabling advisors to efficiently share account access with assistants, compliance managers or other team members. Through this feature, advisors can grant their delegates access to manage portfolios, models and contacts, effectively expanding the advisor’s capacity to handle administrative responsibilities.
The feature promotes greater efficiency and offers flexible, scalable, role-based access to ensure compliance while enhancing operational oversight. Increased, controlled collaboration allows advisor teams to focus more on strategic client and portfolio management. This enhancement is critical for both advisors and enterprises, as it addresses administrative inefficiencies and supports robust compliance practices.
Arnulf Hsu, Founder And CEO, GReminders
Scheduling clients for their quarterly and annual reviews seems like a straightforward process on the surface, but there are quite a few hurdles that come up along the way. The process of identifying when clients are due their next review, coordinating an agreeable time to meet and then following up, can exhaust days of productive work time each month.
This fairly straightforward task can be a drag because the available tools, like scheduling applications, are designed to solve one aspect of the challenge at hand; but none of them are built to address the entire lifecycle of the portfolio review process in a holistic way. A simple task ends up being a drain on productivity when you add up the hours across your entire client base.
The better, lesser-known way to tackle this common problem is to utilize AI-powered automation within an end-to-end framework. The first step is to integrate with advisors’ existing CRMs such as Redtail, Wealthbox and Salesforce.
Our platform identifies clients who are due upcoming reviews and then automatically invites them to schedule with their advisors. This is further enhanced by monitoring the outcome of each invitation and then automating follow ups as needed until the meeting is booked successfully.
Automating the entire review lifecycle, and not just the scheduling part of the process, not only saves time but helps ensure that advisors communicate with all of their clients on a regular basis.
Jeff Berman, Contributing Editor and Reporter at Wealth Solutions Report, can be reached at jberman@wealthsolutionsreport.com.
