As director of marketing, Matt oversees the breadth of go-to-market initiatives for Advicent, including product marketing, lead generation, and public relations. Drawing from a nearly decade-long background at Advicent, Matt works closely with the sales, product development, and executive teams to successfully align Advicent products with the evolving business needs of the financial services industry.
The FinTech industry has many buzzwords that you will see flying around at various points during the year. Concerning financial planning, you will hear words such as cash flow, goal-based, or simple planning. I am here to tell you that despite all of the noise, there is one descriptor of a financial planning tool that stands out as the most important thing to consider.
Scalable
Scalability allows for your financial planning tool to meet the many different needs of your current and potential clients. Even if you have the narrowest of niche client markets, you are likely to come across many unique scenarios from client to client. Just because you work exclusively with doctors does not mean that each financial plan will be a completely repeatable process. Some of those doctors may own their own practice and have business planning questions while other young doctors may need help addressing debt while being high earners.
Scalability also moves in two directions. It should allow you to provide both quick, needs-based advice as well as holistic strategies for your most sophisticated clients. Many advisors find themselves believing that their clients fit into one of these two needs but that belief is limiting. For example, limiting yourself to a simple planning tool means that you will be unprepared to address the needs of a high-net-worth family should they ever walk through your doors. Simplicity is only a part of the equation.
Providing unique value propositions
Finally, scalability allows you to offer all of the bells and whistles when you need them, yet return to quick planning when you do not. Take the opposite side of my previous example. While it would be ideal to solely work with the wealthiest clients, you may be ignoring more ways to provide value to their families. Since it is likely that generational planning will be important in those scenarios, why not offer streamlined services for second and third generations to ensure that the wealth stays with your firm?
Scalability is what should be driving your decision making process when considering financial planning software purchase. Not only does it allow you to address every client’s needs, but it also provides you with the most apparent means for saving time and providing more plans to more of your client base.
To learn how the scalable technology offered by Advicent can increase ROI at your firm, click here.