As an advisor, your clients have high expectations and rightfully so based on the tech available at our fingertips today. Increasingly, accessing information on a desktop is no longer enough to give clients the service they expect. Many investors are using mobile apps to do everyday banking activities such as paying bills or depositing checks and are looking for their advisor to provide similar experiences for their investment portfolio.

To help advisors navigate the move to mobile, we created this 30-minute webinar. 

Here a few key takeaways from the webinar to keep in mind as you consider a mobile strategy:

1) Technology is driving the client experience and giving advisors a competitive edge 

In many industries, technology sets companies apart. Think of how Tesla allows customers to monitor their car’s charge, keep track of where they parked, and send service requests right from their smartphone. 

The same need for on-demand access exists in wealth-management, a sector that has been underserved in terms of innovation. Our research shows that clients fall into two categories:

  1. One group still wants you to manage their wealth for them. They want occasional contact and easy-to-understand communications.

  2. The second group is more self-driven. These clients expect a deeper, more collaborative relationship enhanced by digital services, including mobile, that provide answers to questions anytime, anywhere. They expect their data to be available in the cloud, complete with analytical tools and virtually impenetrable security. Often, these investors are younger, so catering to their needs is a down payment on your firm’s long-term growth.

Both groups want convenience and personalized advice. Adoption of a high-quality mobile experience means advisors can offload basic tasks to the app, such as showing a client how their portfolio has grown. Mobile capabilities reduce work for advisors and free up time for more meaningful activities like building relationships.

2) An app must offer clients security and be easy to use

A recent J.D. Power survey showed that clients worry about the security of their data and find wealth management apps clunky and difficult to navigate. When considering mobile offerings, look for two-factor authentication and a streamlined design. 

When considering mobile for your clients, it should be possible for you to easily enable the app for clients. They should be able to check their net worth, analyze their portfolio’s performance, understand how their funds are divvied up in various structures such as trusts and access a host of other data. It sounds straightforward but many apps lack these basic but critical capabilities.  

3) Ease of use makes for ease of transition

Many firms avoid or are slow to adopt new technologies because they run into internal roadblocks. Employees often rely on legacy systems and may be reluctant to change. Wealth management firms often have a small staff — sometimes, just one person — to implement new technologies. 

As you consider solutions, mobile allows wealth managers to jump over these roadblocks by providing a simplified portal to client data with seamless integration.

We launched Addepar mobile this summer and continue to hear positive feedback. If you’re interested in learning more about the app and what’s to come as we continue to see trends in the market, please contact mobile@addepar.com.