Advice firms that do not have a client portal are less valuable to potential buyers than those that do.
That was the view of those taking part in a panel discussion on the subject at the Empowering Advice Through Technology (EATT) conference in London today.
Research conducted in advance of the conference revealed only 55% of advice firms have made a practice management portal available to clients.
This is a figure FTRC director Ian McKenna described as “disappointingly low”.
Overall, 38% of those surveyed have made an additional portal available, but 77% think giving clients two different portals “hinders their experience”.
Meanwhile, only 27% of advisers are using banking aggregation despite nearly three quarters having a online banking app.
Jon Dear, head of advisory operations at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: “If you haven’t got a client portal I would say, go and get it sorted.
“There are so many reasons, not least the value of your business.
“In this age of consolidation, companies that have a digital engagement with their customers will be worth more than those who don’t.”
Chief executive of TFAS Wealth Ltd, Jeff Lange said: “I would argue anyone who does not have financial portal needs to get on board and sort it out.
“It doesn’t have any negative sides, only positive.”
Dear said around five years ago AON turned around to every provider in the market and said: “If you’re planning to provide employee benefits to any recipient of the AON workplace pension, you are going to put it through AON portal.”
He said he “couldn’t imagine” the likes of AON and Hargreaves Lansdown putting other brands services in front of their clients, yet “quite often that is what advisers are doing”.
Dear added that a portal “enables you to put your brand front and centre and remind them (clients) of the importance of what you do.”
Lange said: “There is a constant and overwhelming information overload out there, with everyone trying to get in front of the end consumer.”
“If there is something coming out of a platform or out of an insurer, it should be going through the adviser,” Dear added.
Both Lange and Dear agreed that client portals could also be a ‘neat way’ for advice firms to solve the intergenerational wealth issue.
“The next generation will absolutely expect it,” said Lange.
“The younger you go, the higher the expectation they can click on an app and get the information they need.”
However, Dear warned: “It is not just about the next generation – it is about today’s generation as well.”
McKenna said if advisers don’t want to work until 9pm on weekdays and work Saturday mornings they “need to deliver a digital mechanism where clients can access to everything you do when they want”.
“Because if you don’t,” he warned, “there is a world wide web out there with all the information they need.”
“If you are not putting that info in front of your clients, you are really missing a trick.”
McKenna said: “In a digital world, every organisation should be aiming to be primary source of info. Otherwise, are they a client of yours or just a customer who uses you for some things?”
McKenna also emphasised the importance of getting the client to feel like they own their plan.
“In difficult times, if they feel it’s their plan, they are more likely to take ownership of it and stick to it,” he said.
However, McKenna said we should “stop calling it a client portal”.
“It is the digital representation of your business and should provide all of the service you provide to the client if they were contacting you,” he added.
