Author Archives: Anthony Nygren

Notes from FinTech Connect 2019: Data Security Has Value, But Isn’t a Value Prop

“Making convenience secure”
“Protect your applications”
“Protect and grow your business confidently”
“Prevents the threat of breaches”

Anyone walking the aisles at the recent FinTech Connect conference in London reading the taglines displayed in the booths would have gotten a clear sense of the overwhelming significance of security in the FinTech space. Not that it should come as a surprise given the constant threat of crippling breaches and compromised data.

What is interesting about the threat and the proclamations of powerful counter-measures is that while the threat hangs like a cloud over the industry, the potency of security efforts effectively require a leap of faith. Just because an application hasn’t been compromised doesn’t mean it can’t be. And when the risk calculation includes the potential damage from a reported breach, even the smallest possibility looms large.

Moreover, the proof of an application’s security lies in the absence of problems. From a marketing perspective, that is a proposition that is very difficult to communicate: part of the customer value you’re delivering is a lack-of-disasters. And a lack-of-disasters is only a differentiating attribute if your competitors have all experienced breaches. In fact, then, data security is table stakes—vital, but not the thing on which you want to hang your positioning hat.

So if data security is important, but is impossible to prove or leverage as a differentiator…

  • Is there still a way to claim some ownership of it as an attribute?
  • Can you create value around an attribute for which nothing happening is a positive outcome?

The answer to both questions is “yes, through content marketing.” Developing and distributing a consistent, relevant, and valuable stream of data security content for prospects and customers is a proven, powerful way to instill confidence and build stickiness. Demonstrating data security expertise through content marketing does infinitely more than a promissory tagline to establish a position of trustability in customers’ minds and reinforce perceived value.

When done well, content marketing can create loyalty even in the face of low switching costs because customers and prospects become hooked on the valuable material delivered and come to recognize you as a knowledgeable and indispensable partner. Moreover, while it’s easy for a competitor to copy tagline promises of data security, it’s much more difficult to duplicate an effective content marketing engine.

 

 

Advisor Fintech: Three Ideas for Capturing the Promise and Avoiding the Perils

TD Ameritrade Institutional’s FA Insights study (summary here) offers the following nugget regarding firm profitability:

Firms that focused on adding younger clients (under 55 years old) grew 2x faster than other firms…but were 1/3 less profitable than those serving older clients.

This is hardly surprising, as older clients have more assets and are likely to have settled into a consistent servicing process. The challenge is that attracting younger clients is necessary for the long-term health of the firm. Moreover, the asset profile of younger clients is not really something that firms can control so it’s difficult to affect the revenue side of the profit equation. That leaves firms with a need to reduce the costs of acquisition and servicing.

Fintech to the rescue?

The promise of fintech offerings – software that handles functions like client onboarding, risk assessment, financial planning and portfolio management – is to deliver cost savings through automation and digitization of these manual, time-consuming processes. The result: improved profitability.

The problem is that fintech only solves problems once it is successfully implemented. Until that point, it is an investment without a clear return. Even more importantly, software represents a solution for advisory firms, not necessarily their clients. There is a lot of wishful thinking behind the assumption that younger investors will universally embrace technology solutions. In fact, a recent survey of millennials (supported by other surveys as well) reveals that they WANT human interaction.

This isn’t to say that there aren’t plenty of opportunities for firms to introduce cost-saving technology AND enhance the client experience. The client onboarding process – e.g., capturing and transferring of financial documents – is a great example how software can facilitate a quick, smooth transition and lead to greater client satisfaction. But one example does not make the case. Moreover, even software that sits at the “sweet spot” of client experience enhancement and firm cost savings can be a false idol if it is difficult for clients to use.

Pre-empting fintech failure

The point is that just because technology offers the potential for benefits doesn’t mean that it automatically will. Firms need to have a realistic view of the potential benefits and risks and have a game plan for minimizing the possible disruption of valuable client relationships.

We recommend the following as key elements of that plan:

  1. Form a “technology council” – develop a list of trusted and valued clients who represent a cross-section of your client base and solicit their feedback on technology options
  2. Invest in onboarding and training – don’t assume that clients will be able to figure it out themselves; develop materials to make it easy to get started and provide ongoing support
  3. Monitor usage and satisfaction – just because you’re not hearing complaints doesn’t mean they like it; actively seek out information and feedback that can identify issues and best practices

These efforts will go a long way to ensuring that the benefits that should accrue from technology don’t get eroded by unanticipated problems.

Integrating Human and Machine Advice: Current State and Future Requirements

Several recent articles and pieces of news pertinent to robos and advisors create an interesting mosaic of the current state of human and machine advice:

The image created by these items depicts the struggles in the advisory business to settle on a clear, promising strategy for integrating advice channels.

The Limits of Disruption

When robos appeared on the scene several years ago, they were heralded as the future of wealth management, a democratizing blow for the industry, and a mortal assault on traditional financial advice. Any who have seen the hype machine movie before won’t be surprised that none of those things turned out to be true. In the real world, the biggest “robos” in terms of assets are those of Vanguard and Schwab that operate as hybrids while the “pure play” B2C robos have struggled to accumulate assets and breakeven on customer acquisition costs.

The reason for this discrepancy between reality and hype is simple: Irrational as it may sometimes be, most people want humans involved in their financial planning. A 2016 survey conducted by EMI and Boston Research Technologies showed not only that most want human involvement, but also that those who were more open to algorithm-driven investing didn’t neatly map to pre-conceived demographic categories. The bottom line is that you can’t will customers and prospects into following your vision for a service offering. Moreover, making assumptions about their behavior based on intuition and truism doesn’t create a strong foundation for success.

Changing Perspectives

The truth is that the majority of customers want a hybrid model. Many of the leading wealth managers understand this and have implemented or will implement various forms of hybrid offerings. In fact, as I mentioned earlier, the largest robos are actually those launched by existing wealth managers Vanguard and Schwab.

But any business heading down the hybrid path needs to recognize that their old models of and assumptions about client management and messaging will likely need to change. Specifically:

  • If portfolio management is outsourced to machines, it becomes a commodity and value must be defined in terms of relationships and communication—an idea that has been around for some time but which has not gained universal acceptance because it is hard to execute.
  • If you are advocating for clients to use your automated platform, you need to recognize that you are now responsible for their adoption of and satisfaction with the investment management software. Firms and their advisors need to be ready to assist clients onboard, answer their questions, and help them realize the full value of the software.
  • Pushing the wrong clients towards a robo solution is a lose-lose situation that will cost time and assets. Firms and their advisors need to have ways of identifying where clients are likely to fall on the spectrum of interest in and comfort with automated portfolio management, recognizing that age and net worth will likely not be great proxies.