We can’t talk about adviser fintech without addressing the elephant in the room – integration. And it shouldn’t surprise anyone that it is the top barrier to adviser firms adopting tech in the advice process. They complain that systems don’t communicate with each other, leading to rekeying, the danger of mistakes and much wasted time.
40% of firms say that “integration” is one of their top five challenges, and 17% named it as their number one challenge.
Adviser Market: Fintech and Digital, January 2018
But our latest adviser market research, Fintech and Digital, found that advisers’ views of their main challenges to adopting tech are as diverse as the market itself.
- Large adviser firms say that “training staff to use tech effectively” is their number one challenge. Clearly, training programmes are a big undertaking for larger firms that generally have more staff than their smaller competitors.
- Medium-sized firms find that paper-based applications are their biggest headache. They tell us that the efficiency gains from tech systems hardly matters if the product providers they rely on still require postal applications.
- Smaller firms say that “adviser resistance to digital solutions” are their main challenge, in sharp contrast with the rest of the adviser market. Small firms experience this much more than the market as a whole.
So solving the integration problem could be crucial for tech providers in the adviser market, but there’s no one-size-fits-all remedy.
Adviser firms that know what they want from tech will find willing fintech partners to help them digitise their businesses. We expect to see more engagement from the adviser market as it comes clearer that they won’t be able to operate without adopting tech and having a digital strategy.