Top RIA firms know they need to invest more in technology in order to create a better client experience, but their biggest challenge lies in getting advisors to embrace new tech.
Leaders of some of the nation’s largest advisory firms attending the 2019 Elite Advisor Summit held by BNY Mellon’s Pershing recently underscored how technology continues to be both a strategic business imperative and a primary business challenge.
Implementing new technologies or solutions to meet client needs was viewed as the biggest challenge to business by 37% of advisory firm executives responding to the 2019 Elite Advisor Poll conducted at the Summit—second only to hiring and developing talent, which 41% of executives called their biggest challenge.
“As firms allocate a growing portion of their budgets to technology, a significant number of them are still challenged with reaping the desired returns from these investments,” said Christina Townsend, director of advisor platform strategy at BNY Mellon’s Pershing. “This reaffirms our belief that technology must be viewed within the broader context of business goals and the optimal client experience that firms are looking to deliver. In some cases, this means going back to the basics and getting advisors to leverage what’s already at their fingertips.”
8 in 10 plan to invest in more tech this year
An overwhelming majority (80%) of advisory firms are planning to increase investments in technology in 2019, according to the Elite Advisor Poll. Almost half (45%) of respondents cited creating a better client experience—online or otherwise—as the top goal for technology investments, followed by creating more capacity for advisors (29%).
Meanwhile, the biggest technology challenge, according to 44% of respondents, was adoption of technology by advisors, followed by identifying the right technology stack (28%).
“We realize that building the right technology framework is a challenge for many firms—especially as a growing number of them are looking to create a unique experience designed specifically for their optimal client,” Townsend said. “That’s why we are expanding our team of technology consultants, who will work side-by-side with advisory firms, with the sole focus of helping clients achieve their digital transformation goals—regardless of whether they leverage Pershing technology, choose to integrate third-party solutions, or create their own experiences.”
In building an optimal client experience, a majority (62%) of respondents said they were funneling their technology investments toward integrations (customer relationship management, custodian, account opening, etc.), while slightly over a quarter (27%) said they were focusing on building client portals or websites. Further underscoring firms’ efforts to get the basics right, new technologies such as artificial intelligence are falling down the priority list, with less than one tenth (8%) of respondents indicating that they were focusing investments in this area.
This year’s invitation-only Elite Advisor Summit, held Feb. 28-March 2 in Florida hosted 86 executives from the nation’s largest RIA firms, representing an average AUM of $9 billion and a median AUM of $1.8 billion.