How advisers can avoid disruption by digital providers

Addressing a recent webinar hosted by WealthO2, David Haintz, a former founding director of the now IOOF-owned Shadforth Financial Group, said the advice industry was currently going through a structural transformation similar to those occurring in other sectors such as retail, television and transport.

“It can be argued that Amazon is killing retail, Netflix is killing the TV industry and Uber has killed the taxi industry, but you can also make an argument that a poor customer experience has contributed to all of these,” Mr Haintz said.

“Client experience is key at every touchpoint, so what we need to do is change that experience. We need to be able to demonstrate value through the journey, because if we don’t like change we’re going to like irrelevance a whole lot less.”

Mr Haintz said the “playbook of the future” for advisers involved keeping in touch with clients’ wants and needs, their longer-term strategy and their product requirements, rather than focusing on product alone.

“This is a new client-centric professional model where an adviser wears three hats,” he said.

“Hat one is doing an amazing discovery and asking questions the client hasn’t been asked before, hat two is a strategy to keep them on track to achieve their aspirations, and the third hat is the product-based hat, talking about the need for evidence based products and investing.”

By focusing their value proposition in on supporting clients to achieve their life goals, advisers could charge more for their services and avoid being vulnerable to disruption from digital advice models, Mr Haintz said.

“There’s this concept of below the line, which is the money, products, mortgages, insurance, and above the line is people, goals, aspirations and outcomes,” he said.

“The best firms are moving their proposition above the line and they are able to connect on an emotional level. You could make an argument that advisers are charging below the line for what they could be giving away for nothing or low margin, but they are giving away what they should be charging for, so there's an opportunity to swing that proposition around.”