When you attend a conference that has a particular thematic focus two years in a row, you have the opportunity to observe the progression of the discussion. InVest 2017, following on the inaugural InVest 2016, very much offered this opportunity.

From my perspective, 2016 was about the retirement advice industry coming to terms with digital advice and moving from seeing human and digital advice channels as competitors to seeing them as complementary. By the 2017 conference, the attendees had come to recognize and understand the necessity of a hybrid model and now were focused on how to manage and optimize that hybrid structure. Two discussion panels exemplified the new focus:

The Empire Strikes Back had a panel of senior executives from large financial services companies (Citi, UBS, Bank of America/Merrill Lynch, and JP Morgan). They all talked about the need to start from a place of understanding the business opportunity offered by digital—an improved client experience, increased efficiency, cross-selling—and to use that understanding to shape digital advice strategy. Throughout the session, the panelists repeatedly highlighted both the opportunity and risks that face big advice providers. The opportunity is to leverage technology to enhance and build new relationships; the risk is that existing clients could be turned off. Specific comments from the panelists illustrate these dynamics:

• “The industry is moving from product distribution to client relationship management and digital is a big part of that new delivery model.” (Venu Krishnamurthy, Head of Citigold, Citipriority, Citi Personal Wealth Management)
• “We learned that we couldn’t just rely on our industry experience to deliver a strong digital experience; UI matters a lot.” (Richard Steinmeier, Head of Emerging Affluent and The Wealth Advice Center, UBS Wealth Management Americas)
• “Clients don’t just use us for one thing, so we have to think about digital advice in the context of overall relationship and be aware of how everything fits together.” (Kelli Keough, Global Head of Digital Wealth Management, JPMorgan Chase)
• “You have to look at decisions about digital implementations on the basis of the value to client relationships.” (Aron Levine, Head of Consumer Banking and Merrill Edge, Bank of America)

In the Hybrid Strategy IRL (“in real life”) session, panelists from the front lines of client advice talked about how the foundation of the hybrid structure has to be the client and that technology should support, not hinder, the necessary and valued human interactions. In their words:

• “You have to know who your clients are and how the technology will help you manage and deliver value in their eyes.” (Ryan Parker, CEO, Edelman Financial Services)
• “Technology should be used to help advisors have better conversations, and to help deliver better outcomes. The guiding questions should be: “What can you automate?”, “What can you augment human with?”, “How do you segment?” (Ben Jones, Managing Director – Intermediary Distribution, BMO Global Asset Management)
• “Don’t make the mistake of falling in love with the technology” because “our product is our experience…the rest is pipes and plumbing.” (Parker)
• “Always go back to question: how does it help the client experience?” (Paul Duval, President, Genesis Wealth Advisors)
• “Technology is empowering. [Clients value our ability] to have tough conversations. The more efficiently we can get “housekeeping” done, the more time we have for those conversations.” (Duval)

As this year’s InVest approaches it will be interesting to see the current state of thinking about the hybrid model, and how far down the road of grappling with the strategic and operational challenges that will likely come with implementing the model companies have come.