Leveraging Technology to Scale Fiduciary Processes
People throw out a lot of buzz words (cloud computing, big data, etc.) in talking about financial technologies. In this webinar, panelists Benjamin Thomason, EVP Sales & Relationship, Vestwell; Christine Lubieniecki, Regional Director, Dimensional Fund Advisors; and Mitch Mitchell, CSM Team Manager, Riskalyze discussed the challenges in scaling fiduciary processes, and focused on pragmatic application of technology to financial advisor workflows; allowing them to serve more clients with the same resources. Ben Thomason highlighted the inefficiencies seen in advisor practices and how technology can help advisors to automate such inefficiencies in order to profitably scale practices:
Inefficiencies Ripe For Automation
1. Client Reporting
Manual processes must be identified and removed.
- Consolidating multi-recordkeeper data into plan sponsor reporting tools and preparing automated reports will save advisors time from having to manually enter plan level data and prepare reports.
2. Multiple Recordkeeper Relationships
Having several recordkeepers can result in too many idiosyncrasies.
- Managing relationships with various recordkeepers can become administratively burdensome over time as each recordkeeper has its own proprietary administrative protocols, menus and fund lineup.
3. Multiple Payroll/Year-End Compliance Function
Avoid unnecessary headaches.
- For advisors and plan sponsors, payroll issues can be a headache. Integrating with payroll providers can lift some of that burden.
4. Burdensome RFP Process
Minimize recordkeeper rodeo.
- Bringing five recordkeepers into a bid—what we call a recordkeeper rodeo—can be wasteful and burdensome; the juice isn’t worth the squeeze.
Leveraging Technology to Enhance, Not Replace, Your Practice
Technology is a way for us to remove hurdles and friction associated with running practice on an administrative level. This comes in the form of:
- 1. Streamlined reporting
- 2. Integrated payroll
- 3. Proposal generators
- 4. Automated fund replacement
- 5. Consolidated advisor reporting (viewing all funds in one place)
