Anyone who works in the financial services industry can tell you that there are a lot of expectations to manage day-to-day. Feedback comes from all angles: the client, the boss, the boss’s boss. Activating on opportunities is part of the job, but they can quickly turn into challenges if not properly managed. The same can be said if you don’t have the proper tools to address them. 

What compounds those challenges is the fact that they differ from person to person. An advisor will have different expectations compared to an associate or an executive. Not only is each expectation valid, but they all deserve the same level of care and consideration – just in a different way. 

Our product team is proud to not only keep up with investor evolution and market shifts but set the bar in understanding the opportunities. We see room to improve decision making and transparency in the private wealth from every angle. We see our job as understanding the market and empathizing with the unique needs of our product users. This level of understanding enables us to create meaningful solutions that address unique challenges.  

For each of these distinct roles, we’ve found that common challenges have similar solutions. Analytics and reporting offerings have the ability to help the user scale their value, maximize their time, and implement best practices that fuel firm growth. These efficiencies enable our users to spend more time addressing client needs. 

We see our clients’ success as a mutually exclusive win. But how do we think about each user and how they benefit from engaging with our technology? We conducted qualitative research to gain insights into the different roles that are typical in a family office, RIA, or bank. From there, we are able to help these individuals create greater efficiencies and better experiences for their clients.

Financial Advisors 

Financial advisors today typically face several challenges in their businesses. They are managing client relationships and often using technology that is outdated. Without the right resources, managing client information can be inefficient and complex. This also creates challenges in recruiting younger generations who expect different touchpoints. 

To address these issues, advisors need advanced client portals that enable investors to easily view their account information and gain secure access to data. This level of access helps facilitate the relationship with the advisor. It also saves them time and enhances the client experience. An investment in technology provides flexibility so that investors can interact with their account information when they want and where they want.

Advisor Teams

Advisor teams juggle a wide variety of tasks, and minor errors can have major impacts on reports and client outcomes. They are usually the ones managing the moving parts to keep the business running smoothly. As a result, they are one of our main users day-to-day. 

With advanced data aggregation capabilities, these teams can minimize the chance of reporting errors. Minimizing manual processes also saves time and allows them to provide more in-depth analytics to clients. Advanced reporting enables these teams to multi-task, create customized reports, and instantly export them to share with the client. 

Operations

For those charged with ensuring the accuracy of data and handling last-minute requests, outdated technology can be a real hindrance. Operations professionals handle much of the back-office work and need to work under tight deadlines.

Through advanced reporting, operations professionals can establish processes that increase workflow, productivity, and efficiency. Within Addepar, they can build templates, establish tiered permissions systems, and ensure their data is free of errors. These elements are all important as operations team members align with advisor teams as our technology “power users.”

Investment Professionals

Investment professionals typically focus on market trends. Analyzing this data is critical to their strategies. It’s also time-consuming.

As clients’ investment needs evolve, it’s crucial that investment professionals are ahead of the curve. We provide these professionals with constantly developing solutions that improve their research and analysis. Their platform experience appeals to their strategic and analytical mindsets. Aggregation technology plays a critical role in informing good investment recommendations and providing transparency on market trends.

Executives

Executives need the ability to conduct a review of the firm’s performance at a moment’s notice. They also play a key role in making financial decisions for the firm. However, they are often tethered to the outdated capabilities of legacy technology products. Managing these disparate solutions can be a time and financial drain.

With advanced technology, executives can spend minimal time to gain a bird's-eye view and find firm performance stats. Additionally, they are able to hold onto legacy data and integrate with a technology platform’s API. 

Investors

Some investors are hands-off and desire a yearly report while others want a modern, on-demand digital experience. Outdated and fragmented reporting solutions cannot achieve enough unique user experiences to appeal to every type of investor. 

Our client portal provides investors with on-the-go access through an app on their mobile devices. It can also allow advisors to drill down and provide clients with more information when they desire it.

Takeaways

When professionals interact with our platform in ways that work for them, performance and efficiencies improve. At Addepar, we are continuously working to understand and address exactly what our users need. We continue to imagine and reimagine technology features that provide unique user experiences. Financial professionals should have the ability to deliver results while enhancing client relationships. At the end of the day, we’re building together to achieve these goals.