Revolutionizing Investor Onboarding for Wealth Management

Technology is a driving force in transforming the Advisor-Investor lifecycle in the fast-evolving landscape of wealth management. Traditionally, the focus has been on managing accounts and portfolios, but the spotlight has shifted towards the crucial “front office” – winning and onboarding new clients. At the heart of this transformation is automation. The goal of scaling operations where resources can be placed in the most impactful areas while delivering a delightful client experience is clear. The challenge lies in minimizing manual efforts by automating tasks where possible.

Efficiently integrating new clients into financial advisory services is a strategic effort, with multiple considerations, including:

Fundamental Activities

Integrating new clients is not a one-size-fits-all process; it's a strategic effort to efficiently convert a prospect into a client. This allows an advisor to impact the client’s financial life and solve problems as soon as possible. While the specifics may vary across firms, the fundamental activities remain consistent:

• Record creation, enrollment, and activation across the various components of the technology stack
• Handle legalities such as contracts, agreements, disclosures, compliance, and regulatory requirements
• Propose account opening, funding, trading, and portfolio implementation
• Guide and help clients learn and navigate the platform
• Create proposal documents, investment policy statements, and financial plans
• Establish the billing process

Onboarding Challenges

Several hurdles confront the onboarding scene today, including:

• Duplicate manual entries in siloed systems hinder efficiency, and a strong demand for technology causes a fragmented landscape, which results in further inefficiencies.
• All-in-one solutions streamline workflows but limit choice, while a la carte solutions offer choice but may restrict connectivity out of the box, necessitating expensive and time-consuming solutions.
• Firms hesitate to change existing processes, including adopting new technologies, citing the justification of "We’ve always done it this way."
• The complexity of tracking interactions, handoffs, and status at scale in activity tracking can lead to things falling through the cracks, posing the worst possible outcome for a client’s experience.
• Providing an exceptional client experience at scale is challenging due to the diversity in client processes, as not all clients fit into the same box.

Primary Outcomes

Efficient onboarding processes are crucial for a seamless transition into client-advisor relationships, ensuring strategic goals are met, and multi-generational connections are fostered. Specifically, onboarding empowers firms to:

• Reduce friction to enhance efficiency, enabling the firm to realize revenue sooner and adapt to individual client needs by streamlining the process, fostering flexibility that ensures clients feel catered to even in unique cases.
• Excel at first impressions by providing new clients with a seamless experience, reflecting thoughtfulness and attention to detail during onboarding, which serves as the initial chance to deliver on promises made in the prospecting phase. When executed correctly, onboarding builds trust through professionalism, establishing the foundation for long-term relationships.

Onboarding means something different to everyone because there is no uniform process. Wealth management firms must take a strategic look at their procedures and work to design and deliver a client experience that matches their business goals.

With the Black Diamond Wealth Platform, wealth managers can make strides toward creating an effective onboarding process. Over time, we’ll continue to enhance the connectivity and experiences available on the platform. Our commitment is to help you efficiently make a difference in your client’s financial lives.

To learn how the SS&C Black Diamond Wealth Platform can support your unique advisory business, request your personal demo, call 1-800-727-0605, or email info@advent.com.