Client onboarding a major advice ‘friction’ area

Speaking exclusively on the ifa Show podcast, Netwealth joint managing director Matt Heine noted that every stage of the advice process is “totally riddled with friction”, saying it’s a paper-based, laborious, complex and tedious process.

According to Mr Heine, the part of the advice process with most ‘friction’, is the upfront onboarding of new clients, where there are continuous requests for paper work from the client after they’ve chosen their adviser and decided to go ahead with the advice relationship.

“They've come to see advisers because they're not necessarily financially literate. Potentially they're embarrassed,” Mr Heine said.

“There are a whole lot of friction points that make that initial onboarding process really challenging for a client and it's important that we can really hold their hand throughout that.”

Speaking about the client fact find process, Mr Heine pondered on ways to make the fact find a more enjoyable process, and whether it needs to be through an online survey or through a face-to-face process between the adviser and the client.

Further, he said there are parts of the client fact find that should definitely be automated.

“If we can look at how we use things like Green ID for upfront KYC but also to collect a whole lot of information, such as bank feeds collecting their income and expenses, and having a really good understanding or picture of their wealth before they even come into the adviser's office, I think there's a lot of work that can done around that part,” Mr Heine said.

To listen to the full ifa Show podcast with Matt Heine, click here.

Adrian Flores

Adrian Flores is a deputy editor at Momentum Media, focusing mainly on banking, wealth management and financial services. He has also written for Public Accountant, Accountants Daily and The CEO Magazine.

You can contact him on [email protected].