Advisers are fed up that their technology isn’t joined up. But this problem of poor integration is gradually improving as we reveal in our latest report UK Financial Advisers: Adviser Technology.
Poor systems integration is a longstanding bugbear for advisers, because it forces them to enter the same data into separate systems, wasting time and creating errors. Advice firms often buy individual systems to address specific problems like risk profiling or cash flow modelling – but the two systems won’t always talk to each other.
Advisers are learning the dangers of ignoring the overall impact on their firm and clients. We see a shift from ‘best of breed’ solutions towards more integrated systems, with well-established planning suites from Dynamic Planner and Defaqto expanding their user base. The tech providers are supporting this by incorporating more elements of financial planning into their products. Intelliflo’s Wealthlink and Timeline’s upcoming Planning and Platform 3.0 are examples.
Consolidators are leading the charge because they are faced with the massive challenges of integrating different business – not just software – and the systemic approach makes obvious sense.
Advisers are taking on board the idea that seeking the individual best is often the enemy of the overall good. If they want to make the most of tech to increase profitability and reduce risk, they need to think and act systemically.
We will cover all of this and more in our soon to be published UK Financial Advisers: Adviser Technology report. For more information, please get in touch.