PLANADVISER - November/December 2021 - 20

managing relationships / cover story
Flexible Technology
Having access to flexible technology solutions became a
competitive advantage during the past year and a half, amid
the uncertainty of lockdowns and social distancing rules.
Nearly nine in 10 advisers surveyed by Broadridge said technology
tools became more critical while working from home.
" The COVID situation really forced the hand of so
many advisers who might have otherwise been a
little behind on adopting electronic trends, " says
Adam Moseley, director, business consulting
and education, at Schwab Advisor Services
in Chicago. " They were left with no choice,
as they were no longer in a position to have
clients in their conference room. "
Advisers surveyed for Charles Schwab's
" 2021 RIA [Registered Investment Adviser]
Benchmarking Study " cited the following technology
tools as having the greatest impact in
2020: portfolio management systems, client relationship
management (CRM) systems and financial planning
systems.
Virtual meetings-whether on Zoom, Webex or some
other platform-boomed during the pandemic, and advisers
relied on them to facilitate collaboration while working
remotely. Chat tools, such as Slack and Microsoft Teams,
that allow for instant messaging between colleagues also
became vital to keeping operations running.
" The Monday morning meeting that used to be in person
is now on a digital channel, " says Kevin Murphy, senior vice
president and head of workplace retirement distribution for
Franklin Templeton in New York City.
Of course, remote work can also lead to burnout and
" Zoom fatigue. "
Still, " When you're not traveling, you're actually more
available for meetings and more accessible to clients, " says
Brian Parker, vice president and national benefits technology
and services leader with Alera Group in Philadelphia. " But
it's a balancing act to make sure people also have enough
time in their day to get their work done. "
Solution-in-Waiting
Just as advisers already had tools such as Zoom and Webex
but only leaned into them when the pandemic hit, they have
also upped their usage of other digital tools, such as report
automation-especially from providers-which they have
had access to but not fully capitalized on in the past.
" We've spent a lot of time over the past 18 months or so
working with consultants and advisers to build automated
data feeds that they get in a file format that can easily load
into their reporting system with shared client data, " says
David Swallow, managing director of consulting relations
and retention at TIAA in Tampa. " In the past, that might
have been done via manual entry, pulling things from
spreadsheet to spreadsheet. "
Advisers on the Schwab platform also quickly began
taking advantage of digital tools to which they previously
had access but did not use, Moseley says. " Adoption skyrocketed
across the board, whether it was [for] moving money,
opening accounts or [employing] maintenance items, " he
says. " There were things we had electronic solutions to
for years, and adoption had been OK. Now it's fantastic.
Advisers just flipped the switch and began using them. "
Moseley says a surprise benefit has a been a reduced
need to redo work, as these electronic systems have
safety mechanisms in place to catch some of the
common mistakes that previously required
corrections, such as a mis-keyed order or a
blank field.
" We try to make sure employees are
engaged together and present, " he says. " We
try to always have the cameras on and make
sure no one is being left behind. Zoom can
become impersonal, so we're also trying to do
some social activities. It was awkward at first,
but people have gotten involved. "
Connecting With Clients
Besides using virtual meeting technology to connect with
their internal team, advisers began using it to meet with
clients, who also quickly adopted the tools.
" It was a little rough early on, as we worked through how to
identify what's working and how to be able to do everything,
from advising participants to enrollment meetings and sales
presentations, " Lehmann says. " But as we began utilizing
these meetings more effectively, it created a huge opportunity
for us. Now, as we come out of this, I'm challenging my
team not to revert to the way we always did things. "
As recently as the first quarter of this year, 90% of clients
were engaging with their adviser firm's staff completely virtually,
said adviser respondents to the Schwab study, and they
expected half of clients to continue with that virtual engagement
even when COVID-19-related restrictions lifted. A separate
study from Nationwide found that employing remote
service options was the No. 1 way that successful advisers
planned to better support their clients over the next year.
The ease of online meetings has changed the nature of
in-person meetings, for those advisers who have resumed
them. For Parker, the goal now for in-person meetings is to
make them " purposeful. "
" Part of it is being social, but it also might be an opportunity
to whiteboard or spend a few hours going through
something, " he says. " We have the clients prescribe to us
whether they want to meet in person or online. Flexibility
will be key for meetings through 2022. "
Lehmann says his firm is going forward with a hybrid
model for doing business with clients-working with them
in the way that works best for everyone. " For some, that
might be going back to in person, " he says. " For others, it
might be continuing on with electronic meetings, which
we've become pretty darned good with, over time. "
Sources say many advisers have found that digital meetings
make it much easier to coordinate the schedules of a
quorum for a quarterly committee meeting than it would be
to get them all physically into the same room.
20 | planadviser.com November-December 2021
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PLANADVISER - November/December 2021

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