The "consumer-led" and "human-assisted approach" offers great potential for advice firms and other wealth management players seeking to widen their market reach and appeal to the next generation, the author of this article says.

Whatever else could be concluded from more than two years of the pandemic – the experience of working from home, communicating on (mostly) reliable internet via Zoom or Teams with co-workers and clients – was that it was not an unalloyed joy. For all the talk of “remote” working, there’s a need for human contact with clients. People haven’t evolved over the millennia to stare at screens all day, and we are sure that readers agree. It is a reason why the rise of “robo-advisors” and other automated systems will not necessarily push humans to the margins. Rather, this may be more about augmenting humans, increasing their productivity and flexibility. 

Here are some comments about the continued need for the human touch from Simon Binney, an independent director at Wealth Wizards, a UK firm founded in 2009. These brief comments set out important terrain for wealth managers to consider. The usual editorial disclaimers apply to views of guest writers; the editors are pleased to share these insights and hope they propel debate forward. Remember, if you want to jump into the debate, email tom.burroughes@wealthbriefing.com

While the idea of a fully-automated saving and investment process with no human intervention made for an exciting business case, the fact is that only a minority of people feel confident in making their own investment decisions. We all need advice of one sort or another, whether that is basic guidance and triage to start investing or saving into a pension, or more complex advice for areas such as estate planning.

Which is why, what is proving to work is not “robo-advice” as many envisaged but consumer-led and human-assisted advice. It is a process that is built on trust and incremental engagement with the customer. In this way, the advice process can be tailored to the customer’s needs while still being delivered cost effectively.

Consumer-led services for basic investment and saving needs, which hand holds the investor through the process to transaction with a carefully constructed triage process, chat bots and guidance, are going to help advisors reach more people with regulated advice and guidance.

And running alongside that will be a similar digital onboarding process for customers with a need to speak to an advisor, for example where they have more complex needs, which refers them to an advisor at just the right time in the process. 

Here, the customer is taken down a quick, easy-to-use digital process, which they can complete when it’s convenient for them, and access to an advisor can be dialled in when it’s clear that it is required. But the heavy lifting of gathering the customer’s data has already been carried out, meaning that the advisor can start talking about the customer’s needs and goals straight away, i.e. the value elements of advice to the client. 

Technology used in this way perfectly complements the human advice process allowing firms to meet the advice need of many more people while maintaining a focus on face-to-face advice (whether physical or virtual).

For nationals, networks and consolidating advice firms, who want to broaden their client banks amongst mass affluent clients and bridge the intergenerational wealth gap, the consumer-led and human-assisted approach offers huge opportunities.

About Wealth Wizards:     
Wealth Wizards describes its founding purpose is to “make financial advice affordable and accessible to everyone, and this mission and ethos still drives the business forward.” The organisation has a business-to-business customer base, composed of life assurers, Tier 1 banks, wealth firms, employee benefit consultants a large advice network. It also operates its own digital independent financial advisor (MyEva) which is building a “chatbot” regulated financial advisor. Since March 2021 the firm has been owned by Royal London Group.