While around 41% of Australians intend to get personal financial advice in the future, many of them will not proceed because of perceived barriers such as cost, according to research by ASIC. With increased demand and reduced supply, advice businesses have a real opportunity to innovate around changing regulations and consumer trends to improve their client and business outcomes.
The requirement for a more comprehensive due diligence process, additional compliance burdens and more time to meet best interest duty have collectively increased the regulation of personal advice since the Royal Commission.
This has simultaneously increased the cost of financial advice and reduced the number of advisers available to provide it.
Meanwhile, the need for financial advice has only continued to grow, with one in five people saying the pandemic has led to dramatic financial changes and 25% of people worrying more about money above other concerns.
Financial advice improves wellbeing and should be both accessible and affordable for everyone who wants or needs it.
Traditional comprehensive financial advice has become more expensive and less accessible and not everyone wants or needs to deal with all their potential financial goals simultaneously or continuously, as in a comprehensive financial plan.
Consumer trends on what the modern client is looking for from their financial planning relationships has also shifted. The modern client values simplicity and the use of technology is essential to streamline the client experience and remove roadblocks from the process.
Successful businesses are rethinking the way they interact with their clients and are leveraging technology to better deliver to their customers’ preferences, scale their business models and leave more time to focus on delivering a quality advice experience.
The fast change in current market conditions has underlined the need to make a genuine shift to goals-based advice rather than intuitively incorporate it into traditional advice processes.
A goals-based discussion can help reveal a client’s priorities and values and evaluate whether their goals are achievable and make the difficult trade-offs needed. It can substantially improve the outcome of advice and fosters a conversation that is highly tailored, holds great meaning and relevance with a focus on the areas that matter the most to the client.
Midwinter has recently launched MultiGoal – a simple yet powerful goal optimsation engine for advisers. Here we explore how MultiGoal enables advice businesses to effectively innovate, increase efficiency and find new ways to reach and engage clients.
Foster strong long-term adviser-client relationships.
It’s likely that over time, customers who start with MultiGoal as an entry piece of advice will evolve to seeking comprehensive advice for more complex circumstances from traditional advisers.
Having used MultiGoal to demonstrate the value of advice to your clients, and changing their lifestyles, the likelihood of them as a returning customer increases given the value demonstrated and pre-existing relationship.
MultiGoal is a great tool for many stages of the customer life cycle. It also encourages clients to imagine and connect with their ‘future selves’ and to think about their goals for retirement. A traditional review typically focuses on easily measurable areas such as investment performance when they should measure whether a client remains on track to achieving their goals. MultiGoal is key in reviewing strategies and, if needed, pivoting to ensure the client is on track to achieve their goals.
Introduce new service offerings to expand your target market.
MultiGoal will help advice practices and advisers take their business to the next level. The cost effectiveness and scalability of MultiGoal lowers barriers to entry to advice for everyday Australians and allows advice businesses to address a large unadvised market who need quality, easy to access and affordable advice. MultiGoal is an opportunity for advice business to provide a new service offering and pricing model that allows them to profitably service entry level clients and grow their client book.
Additionally, by giving these consumers easy and affordable access to financial advice, advice businesses can make a significant positive difference to their customers’ long-term financial wellbeing and support the health of the financial advice profession.
Gain efficiencies so you can focus on what matters most – delivering a quality advice experience.
The need to streamline the advice process is crucial in the already demanding financial planning profession. With little more than the click of a button, MultiGoal will automatically suggest strategic recommendations tailored to your client which they can takeaway to start them on the pathway to their ideal financial future.
These actionable items are delivered in a statement of advice that can be issued and charged for after a single meeting.
Adviser’s clients can complete their personal and financial information in the Client Portal prior to their appointment and have this information securely flow through to MultiGoal, reducing double-data entry for the adviser and ensuring the appointment time is spent where it’s most valuable.
Click here to find out more about MultiGoal.
