Simplify Communications With the Touch of a Button

In our last piece [LINK], we talked a bit about simplifying communications and favoring big-picture, quick-at-a-glance information. As it stands, advisors are struggling to keep their — and their clients’ — heads above water when it comes to information and communications. 

Blueleaf helps by simplifying reporting. Whether your clients have single or multiple custodians, Blueleaf helps you create easy-to-digest reports with big fonts and your branding. No more forwarding confusing, traditional reporting that confuses clients. Blueleaf makes things clear and understandable at first glance. 

Clients who understand what’s going on are less likely to be rattled in choppy markets or even leave because they know what’s happening with their money. No more manually building clunky spreadsheets. Instead, seamlessly create a branded, clean, formatted report that’s easy to deliver. Really easy. Seriously, you can send out invoices and reports in thirty minutes…tops. 

Introducing automated touchpoints keeps your clients in-the-know. Blueleaf helps advisors automate communications with branded update emails, opening the door to conversations with the touch of a button. If your client has a question about the information in the email, they just hit “reply” and you get their response in real-time, enabling you to head-off issues or quickly answer questions. 

Automated emails have been a popular service that our advisors say helps them become more proactive. Many advisors send weekly emails without fail — even during downtimes — to train clients’ brains that the ebbs and flows are natural. It’s a positive way to desensitize clients to volatility, which is guaranteed to happen.

Our customers also use automated alerts to quickly ping people who drift outside of their target allocations, even on held-away accounts. With our WealthGuard product, your clients get a text if they dip below a threshold letting them know you are working on their behalf. You get to be the rockstar that swoops in and says “Hey, let’s take a look at this and do some planning” when something is off-target, without actually having to hawkeye accounts around the clock. Your clients will know that you have an eye on their accounts and trust that you’re operating with their best interests in mind. 

Provide “Always-On” Service Without Being Handcuffed to Your Desk

Advisors are not only contending with uncertain market conditions, they are hamstrung by the way they manage operations. Blueleaf aims to help advisors simplify their operations so they can focus on serving clients. Our batch reporting feature allows advisors to create a simple report that can be downloaded and mailed or uploaded to the client portal with the click of a single button. 

Speaking of client portals, ours allows your clients to access the information they need whenever they want. Whether they’re curious about balance changes or just want to poke around, it’s available 24/7 and is extremely easy to navigate. 

Compliance is a thorn in the side of many advisors. The requirements are rapidly evolving and remaining compliant requires significant effort. Blueleaf helps simplify compliance in several ways. When it comes to billing, our reports are built to directly answer compliance questions. It’s easy to access necessary information, including clear records of transactions. Keep client communications compliant with our document vault, which is a secure way to share and archive information to and from clients. 

Less Guesswork, More Simplicity, Better Client Service

On top of simplifying communications and operations, we put our money where our mouth is in terms of product simplicity. Simplicity is a strategy at Blueleaf and we make it as easy as possible to use our product. Our customer support team can turn you into a Blueleaf Ninja in 30 minutes or less. 

Most of our customers choose us because we keep things much simpler than some of our competitors. No one wants to pay tens of thousands of dollars for a product so complex they can only tap into 5% of the system’s capabilities, even with a dedicated person managing it. 

We also take the guesswork out of client onboarding. Simply plug your client’s name into the portal. This triggers an onboarding email that allows the client to verify their email, create a password, and add accounts (401k, mortgage, etc.). That email also includes a short explainer video about what Blueleaf is and why it’s important. 

One of the areas where Blueleaf really shines is in simplifying periods of chaos. Our clients experienced this firsthand during the pandemic and subsequent market volatility. Our automated reporting simplified the process and kept clients informed and in-context which quelled fears so our advisors could redirect their attention to more unique and value-added client interactions. 

For advisors that specialize in areas like tax management or prefer to run lean operations, we help firms to streamline reporting without getting overwhelmed during busy periods (aka tax season) with manual report preparation. 

Blueleaf is everything you need and nothing that you don’t — all available at a reasonable cost. Simplicity is a strategy for us and it pervades everything we do. If you’re looking to cut out complexity, streamline operations and communications, and better serve your clients, reach out for a free demo. 

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The post Banking on Simplicity: Why Blueleaf is Everything You Need And Nothing You Don’t first appeared on Blueleaf.

Automation is a topic we’ve been learning about for decades. Science fiction authors have written about it. Other industries have whole-heartedly adopted it. In wealth management, many are confused by it. How can we use it and why is it important?

Financial advisors, in general, tend to look at automation through a narrow lens. Some will tell you it’s good for rebalancing. Others will talk about robo-advisor applications. Blueleaf uses it for client communication and reporting. Each of these is a subject worth delving into.

Automatic Asset Allocation and Trading

Applying a model to a client portfolio is only the first step in what could be a long and tedious process. Active investment managers follow that up with daily active trading to tweak and adjust that model. Is that how you want to make a living? Good luck scaling your business.

Wealth managers in the digital era set the model and apply rules to trigger trades. If you’ve used Blueleaf’s WealthGuard application, you know how this works. You apply the model, set your tolerance ranges, and the system alerts you when you need to rebalance.

Why is this necessary? With the constant volatility of today’s market, rebalancing can’t wait for a quarterly or annual cycle if you’re to stay anywhere near your intended target model. Rebalancing with a spreadsheet might be a little painful if you’re doing it once a year for your fifty clients. But try running that spreadsheet everyday for even 10. Nevermind 100 or 1,000. We need automation to keep up with it now.

Automated Communication and Reporting

How much time do you spend composing updates for clients? How long does it take to compile monthly or quarterly reports? There is no reason why you can’t use automation to handle those tasks. If you don’t, further growth will be impossible at some point. 

Take that last scenario and apply it to an entire firm. Scaling a practice is wonderful. It means you’re successful at what you do, but how will your team react to being overworked? Taking the pressure off with automation is one of the keys to a healthy organization.

At Blueleaf, we deliver on-demand automated reporting across multiple communication channels. e.g. Client gets an email, clicks on a link, and there’s the report. That’s what they’re looking for.

Robo-Advisors Aren’t A Direct Threat But Automation Is Necessary To Keep It That Way

According to Statista, assets under management by robo-advisors topped $1.3 trillion in 2021, with an annual projected growth rate of 20.11% over the next four years. That’s not putting any advisors out of business, but it is a significant pool of assets we’re collectively losing.

Complicating the situation, the number of prospective financial advisors coming out of college is going down, while more than fifty percent of existing advisors are due to retire in the next ten years. The rest of us must pick up the slack. We can’t do that without automation.

Despite their increased popularity, robos are not considered a serious threat to human wealth management firms, but a decline in quality of service and a shortage of qualified financial advisors to take on new clients could change all of that. Preventative steps need to be taken.

Here’s the situation: we’re living in a different world, one where data is the key to everything. The sheer volume of data that is required to run a wealth management firm mandates an automated component to your practice management plan. It’s that simple.  

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The post Why Automation is Critical for Wealth Management first appeared on Blueleaf.

Yes, automated advisors and fintechs are upending traditional models, but that doesn’t mean advisors need to add complexity just to get ahead. In fact, in a landscape where competition is fierce, simplicity is often the best strategy. The focus should instead be on refining the elements of the wealth management business to their simplest components. 

Simplicity can be the differentiator and competitive advantage advisors need in a crowded marketplace. So how do we go about the business of simplifying? It’s about getting back to basics and focusing on simplicity in products, accounts, communications, and operations.

Solving Communications Complexity

Advice and interpretation are core components of wealth management. An advisor’s job is to digest the complexities of building wealth and communicate it in simple, easy-to-understand terms for clients. At its most basic level, simplifying communications means getting clear. 

The first area of focus for clarity is in reporting. Custodians tend to focus on covering their bases and ensuring that they’re providing the necessary — and legally required — information to customers. What that looks like to the customer is a lot of hard-to-read fine print and a bunch of difficult to interpret data. 

Your clients are not interested in the fine print. They’re interested in how their money is doing today. Adding clarity in reporting means being a “big print” advisor and favoring first-glance formatting for information that goes in front of your clients. This information should encapsulate the big picture and be easy to read and easy to digest. Really buttoned-up advisors will offer this information in a branded, clean, simple, formatted report that is both easy to create and deliver. 

Another way to be clear with your clients is to stay in touch. High-frequency and automated touchpoints to build trust while opening the door to helpful conversations. Proactive outreach, for example, when clients fall outside of their target allocation and what you’ve done to rebalance is a simple way to let clients know that you’re paying attention and adding value. In short, it’s a simple way to demonstrate value without adding complexity.

This method of communication also has the benefit of being simple and comprehensive at the same time. High-frequency yet simple communications allow you to cover a variety of topics over time and deliver more value than a “big bang” report once per quarter. This also keeps you and your clients geared toward simple, focused objectives. You don’t need to answer every possible question in advance. You just need to get more comfortable delivering less data and more clear, helpful information and interpretation. 

Solving Business Model Complexity

Another area where advisors love to create complexity (even if they don’t realize they’re doing it) is by complicating the services they offer and the service models used to serve clients. Many advisors create bespoke services and pricing models for each and every client, so it’s easy to see how quickly service models can grow complex and burdensome. Instead, advisors should only customize services where it adds value (read: stop creating one-off service models for every single client). 

Creating complexity in products and services is only part of the problem. Advisors also miss opportunities to proactively simplify via automation. Automating reporting so that clients get the most pertinent information when they want it is a step in the right direction. Not only does it cut down on time spent creating and sending out reports, but it keeps your clients happy, too. Similarly, automation can be used to present clients with “always-on” access. Leveraging a client portal that securely houses all of your clients’ “need-to-know” information enables you to always be there for your clients without the heavy lifting of doing everything manually. 

You can’t control the direction of the industry, the winds of competition, or the whims of your clients. You can control the level of complexity you inject into your wealth management practice. Using the simple, straightforward tips above should help add clarity and ease for your practice — and your clients. 

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The post Why Simplicity is the Key to Weathering the Wealth Management Storm first appeared on Blueleaf.

Robo-advisors figured this out years ago. They simplified wealth management in a way that advisors initially scoffed at. We didn’t believe that clients would sacrifice personal attention for automated investing. Ask the folks at Betterment, Wealthfront, Charles Schwab and Vanguard how they feel about that. Strategic simplicity has them each managing over $20 billion in their Robo offerings.

Digital-first advisors are expanding nationwide, giving prospects more options. Your regulatory burden is increasing, making compliance work overtime. In this environment, it’s difficult to sustain growth. Help yourself by implementing the following strategies:

Strategy #1: Simplify Your Firm Investment Models

Offering to build a custom portfolio based on risk tolerance sounds like a great management strategy until you hit an actual growth spurt. Scaling a practice is simpler when you have building blocks that can be replicated, at least in part. Creating a few “base portfolios” that you can add custom pieces to is more effective than always starting from scratch.

Fewer models can be appealing to potential recruits also. Unlike 401(k) strategies where you’re asking clients to choose conservative, moderate, or aggressive, individual advisors can start with those models and build on them based on the individual client needs. The base portfolio remains unchanged. This simplifies portfolio construction at the firm level.

The simplicity of this strategy can help the firm build a reputation as an efficient operation with advisors that offer a personal touch to each relationship. It also helps maximize returns, since the portfolio construction team will be focused on analyzing and tracking fewer holdings. Most importantly, clients will be happier with the simplicity and more willing to give referrals.

Strategy #2: Simplify Your Firm Communications

According to a study conducted by Microsoft, the average attention span of your clients and prospective clients has dropped from twelve seconds in the year 2000 to a mere eight seconds in 2021. That’s the amount of time you have to connect with your primary target market right now. Are you reaching them in an effective way?

The key to effective communications in wealth management is to simplify the data being delivered and send it more frequently. Are you still mailing 30-page printed performance reports? Those no longer work. Clients are expecting more streamlined communication and have less tolerance for “fine print.” 

Frequent communication of easily digestible data is how your firm can avoid complexity traps. Automating those communications further simplifies the process. This can be applied to performance reports, balance updates, and news releases. Don’t try to combine all of them into one. In modern wealth management, each “touch” helps build the client relationship.

Strategy #3: Simplify Your Firm Operations

Professional sports teams cross-train their players to be able to take the field in multiple positions. By having interchangeable parts, they are stronger as a team. Wealth management firms should view their financial advisors the same way. Unfortunately, the playbook is often too complicated for everyone to understand. That’s a growth inhibitor.

Putting aside the sports metaphor, what I’m saying here is that some firms have too much complexity built into their business model. Customization is great if you’re a boutique shop, not so much if you want to grow past $100 million aum. The system needs to be simple enough for everyone to get on board and cover for each other when necessary.

Take automated reporting as an example. Client reporting is easy to automate, even with multiple customized models, but what about internal reporting? Your firm can’t measure performance when everyone is running a different play. Simplifying the way in which you manage money makes operations cleaner and sales easier on the advisors.

As a final note, remember that it’s all about the client. The strategies laid out here are designed to attract and maintain clients with simple investment models, clear communication, and client/advisor relationships that are not complicated. That’s what the robo-advisors and many of your competitors are offering. Your firm will thrive if you do the same.  

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The post Future-Proofing Your Firm with Strategic Simplicity first appeared on Blueleaf.

Instead, advisors and firms have focused on bespoke (but not necessarily value-added) investment advice and products, clunky ways of managing and passing along information, and operating on multiple client service models that don’t add value. Where clients have come to expect simple, intuitive wealth management options, they are becoming ensnared in a complex web of our own making. This complexity is doing real damage — both to the business as a whole and advisors’ lives. The continued choices advisors make around complexity have served to worsen it.

Products, Accounts, and Account Types are Part of the Problem

Rather than seeking to simplify the complexities of the current landscape, the opposite has occurred. We now live in a world with more financial products than ever — and the proliferation of products and product types continues. For example, there are at least as many equity funds as there are stocks for them to invest in. Here’s the thing: the more custom and proprietary products that are available, the more considerations advisors must take into account in making suggestions to clients. Presenting viable options means sifting through everything available to find the right match.

Clients are bearing the burden of this complexity, too. They have more accounts (his and hers 401ks and IRAs as well as multiple bank accounts) in more account types (IRAs, Roth IRAs, SEP-IRA, 401(k) Roth 401(k)s, 403b) across more institutions than ever before (5-7 institutions on average). The average consumer owns 5.3 accounts across all types of financial institutions. For the mass affluent and the wealthy, the average is much higher. Advisors are tasked with juggling multiple accounts across multiple financial institutions to create a strategy that serves their clients well. 

Then, there’s the cherry on top of the complex sundae: the marketplace is and continues to grow more crowded. New robo advisors and digital platforms emerge almost daily, and virtual advising has eliminated geographic boundaries and enabled firms and advisors to compete on a national scale. In addition to navigating proprietary products and numerous client accounts and account types, advisors and firms must do it all under increased competitive pressure. It’s not easy. 

Complexity is Getting Passed Right Along to Clients

And advisors are struggling to break down this complexity for clients. Instead, the deluge of information, concepts, and offerings that advisors are swimming through get passed right along to clients. Advisors are known to create long, winding reports with perplexing charts and graphs that clients are loath to decipher. 

Clients really just want to know three things: 1) what do I have? 2) How am I doing? 3) Am I OK? Advisors not only pass along complexity to clients or — worse yet — proactively add complexity, but they also miss opportunities to simplify. As an industry, we don’t provide the simpler reports we could and should. We miss opportunities to automate communication to clients to help steer them away from the frantic churn of the news cycle. In short, we miss most of the opportunities to proactively manage clients and deliver value in the form of simplicity and clarity to our clients. 

Complex Client Service Models and Operations Hamstring Advisors

So far, we’ve looked at the complexity of products and services in wealth management, and the inability (or unwillingness) of advisors to simplify complex concepts for the clients. Wrap that up in complicated client service models and operations and you end up with an over-emphasis on low-value customization. 

Many advisors and firms are taking the misguided route of unnecessary customization where it doesn’t add value. Take, for example, the advisor that works with 50 clients and creates a different billing model for each of them. Does this create value for the client? No. Does it somehow make it easier for the advisor to manage? No. 

Advisors get caught up in the competitive landscape and reactively turn to customization as a way to differentiate. The problem is that they are actually shooting themselves in the foot. The only way to differentiate in wealth management is to add (and effectively communicate) value. Advisors caught up in the customization hype are doing neither — and they’re only adding a ton of complexity to operations and account management. 

Building a one-off investment or billing model for each client is tantamount to spinning a web of complexity in which they become entangled. Rather than building an effective model and tweaking parts of it as needed to meet client needs, advisors are draining time and resources. The former could be just as effective and afford the advisor additional time to spend on strategic, value-added services. The latter just creates a mess. 

All of this complexity boils down to an unpleasant experience, both for the advisor and clients. Where clients want clarity and simplicity, they are being met with difficulty and confusion. That’s no way to build trust and it’s no way to survive or thrive in the current market. In our next article, we’ll explore the strategic role of simplicity and how it helps advisors differentiate and build credibility. 

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The post Complexity is Wealth Management’s Favorite — and Most Costly — Vice first appeared on Blueleaf.

CFP Katie Stokes is a pioneer. Katie initially shied away from Blueleaf’s automated email update feature before embracing the platform, mastering client-centric communication, and getting featured in the Wall Street Journal for her efforts.

There have been many successes here at Blueleaf, but this advisor story is one of our favorites. As we wind down Q4 of 2020, we’d like to share Katie’s story with you once again.  

Embracing New Ideas in an Ultra-Traditional Environment

We first featured Katie Stokes on our blog back in 2014. Her original firm, J.E. Wilson Advisors(a long-term customer of ours) did not immediately buy into the Blueleaf philosophy on client communication. It just wasn’t how they were taught to do business.

Setting the financial narrative with regular client emails seemed like a risky idea at best for this traditional firm from South Carolina. Our way would surely spark a panic during down market conditions, wouldn’t it? Blueleaf analytics suggested otherwise.

Our internal reporting data, which is extensive, showed that regular client communications help keep the advisor top of mind.

As for the “down market” concern, regular emails add necessary context to help clients understand how they are impacted from a holistic perspective. As a CFP, Katie embraced that idea. Financial wellness is not dependent upon stock market performance alone.  

Combatting the “CNBC Effect” with automated email updates

The negative effects of CNBC stock promoters and forecasters were already being felt by advisors in 2014. Clients with little or no communication from their advisor were tuning in and listening to recommendations based on random opinions or motivated by profit. 

Those who shout the loudest usually have the most influence over consumer behavior. CNBC has twenty-four-hour coverage and a worldwide network. Advisors on Blueleaf have the automated email update. It’s our way of cutting through the noise and helping advisors provide value to their clients.

Financial advisors compete with the media for client attention every day. Katie Stokes recognized that situation in 2014 and reluctantly tried our automated email updates as a countermeasure. That changed the game for her, but taking it further was what got the attention of the Wall Street Journal.

In case you missed our article on the CNBC Effect

Why CNBC is Your Biggest Competitor in the Wealth Management Space

Read the article

The Quarterly Reporting Fallacy

Financial advisors have long been cautioned to keep clients away from financial statements. Instead, the recommended means of communication was to send complex quarterly performance reports that only a financial professional could fully understand.

With Blueleaf, performance reporting is built into our client portal and accessible by the client anytime. It updates nightly, so the numbers are always current as of close of business the previous day. That applies to all accounts, managed and held-away.

Naysayers frowned upon the idea of regular emails and on-demand reporting, claiming it would never work. They warned that clients would panic at the first sign of market volatility, making the advisor’s job more difficult. Actually, we’ve seen the opposite. Just ask those who have used these features.

Within a few months after subscribing to Blueleaf, J.E. Wilson Advisors, with Katie Stokes at the helm, switched 100% of their clients from printed quarterly reports to digital on-demand reporting in Blueleaf. That’s what got Katie featured in the Wall Street Journal. She killed the traditional quarterly report.

Client-Centric Communications promote Calm and Confidence

When we talk about client-centric communication, we’re not referring to email marketing. That’s different. “Client-centric” means that any communication is specific to that client, addressed to them by name, and referencing their financial information.

Framing communication in this manner lets the client know the advisor cares about their welfare. Bulk emails send out general news and information. Personalized communication shows how market conditions affect the client specifically.

This approach has been proven to promote calm and instill confidence in clients, especially during down market conditions. By seeing an aggregated view of all their accounts, they can see the entire financial picture, in context.

Our automated email updates encourage clients to log into their client portal for additional details. The interface is designed to be easily understandable, even to the least financially savvy people. Blueleaf gives them uncluttered screens and relevant information.

The “old school” technique of complex quarterly reports does not work for today’s client. If they are unable to understand something, they’re not calling their advisor. Modern clients seek answers through internet search. Our system offers a simpler alternative to that.

Blueleaf Financial Updates Streamline Communications Strategy

Personalized communication is only one element of the Blueleaf platform. Our system is fully automated, making it easier to streamline communications and scale faster.

Sending regular, personalized updates to clients keeps the lines of communication open, but most advisors rarely get phone calls in response to them. Email begets email, so many clients simply send a reply back to their advisor with any questions. 

Outbound emails are also automated, making it easy for an advisor to work on prospecting during regular business hours. Seamless communications make scaling faster and easier to grow your practice.

We do offer quarterly performance reports. They’re not nearly as complex or confusing as those outdated printed reports you’re using now. Blueleaf gives you the ability to send automated monthly or quarterly reports via email to all clients. Set it up once and you never have to worry about it again. How much time would that save you?

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The post How one advisor mastered client communication, got featured in the Wall Street Journal first appeared on Blueleaf.

Personal automation doesn’t always give you more free time. You need to be intentional in deciding what to automate to avoid creating more work. To start thinking critically about automation, ask yourself these simple questions:

1. Does the task require your personal attention to get done?
2. Does the task consume lots of time?
3. Can you avoid too much personalization? 

A yes on all three means it is definitely a good candidate for automation.

For example, let’s say you want to quickly set up phone calls with people you met at a seminar you’ve given.  Your problem and the current process could look something like this:

Problem: I have trouble reaching out to all new prospects and then setting up a time for a catch-up call that works for both of us.

Current process: Go through your contact list. Reach out to each prospect with an email reminding them of who I am and asking them for a catch-up call. Wait for a response. Send emails back and forth until you find a time that works for both of you. Set up a reminder for call.

Now, let’s run this workflow through our criteria:

1. Does it need our attention to get done? Nope. In fact, I’d rather this run in the background.
2. Is it time consuming? You bet it is. There’s lots of unnecessary back and forth for a simple follow up.
3. Does it require much personalization? It could, but it doesn’t have to. Writing a generic email reminder for all these follow ups is probably just as good as writing each one individually.

In this case, it looks like we’ve got a workflow that’s a good candidate for automation. 

The post Deciding what to automate is as simple as 1 2 3. first appeared on Blueleaf.