How digital fact finds are revolutionising client onboarding

The success of your financial advice practice hinges on its efficiency. The more clients you can assist to achieve their financial goals, the greater the cash flow to your business.

Like many specialties in complex regulated industries, financial advisers have traditionally been hampered by inefficient administrative and compliance processes.

Even in the digital age, it's still common during fact finds for clients to provide pages of hand-written information that must then be reviewed and entered into Xplan or another software system. If information is missing, you have to contact the client and wait for them to fax or mail it through before you can manually enter it into Xplan.

This double handling introduces the risk of data entry errors and eats up hours of your valuable time each week — time that could be better spent generating new business or servicing existing clients.

What's more, filling out a paper form isn't a great onboarding experience for new clients who have come to expect seamless digital journeys from service providers.

New digital technology takes the hassle out of fact finds

AdvisorForms from Umlaut solves these issues by allowing clients to enter their personal financial information into a digital form that automatically syncs to Xplan, MYOB, Xeppo and other software systems.

AdvisorForms follows a simple four-step process for seamless data capture and storage:

1. You send your client an email with a link to the digital form.
2. Your client fills in the form via the online portal.
3. You review the data with your client to avoid errors.
4. Once approved, the data automatically syncs with Xplan or your software system.

It's easy to use, convenient for your clients, and automatically moves data into your current systems so it's accessible across your practice.

AdvisorForms transforms the client onboarding experience by delivering four significant benefits over the traditional paper-based process:

1. Saves you time so you can get back to advising
2. Helps boost revenue and grow your business
3. Impresses clients and turns them into fans
4. Ensures your data is error-free and compliant

Let's look at each of these benefits in more detail.

Spend more time finding and servicing clients

How many hours in an average week do you spend scanning, printing, posting and chasing up forms? Add to that the amount of time you spend manually entering client data into Xplan or another software system.

AdvisorForms completely replaces the slow paper-based process with a streamlined digital experience that saves on average 1.5 hours per client.

Say you see around 130 clients each year, which is about average for an adviser in Australia. AdvisorForms could save you up to 195 hours per year — that's over 24 days, roughly five working weeks back in your schedule that you can dedicate to building your book or supporting existing clients.

Just imagine what you could do with all that extra time. The customisable online portal allows you to seamlessly collect data from both new and existing clients. You receive alerts when forms are completed so you can sync the data directly to Xplan or your software system. No more waiting for clients to fax or mail through forms — you have the data when you need it.

Boost revenue and grow your business

While online fact finds are still in their infancy in parts of the Australian financial advice market, we can get a gauge of their potential by looking at adjacent fields like mortgage broking, where digital fact finds have driven record settlement months for individual brokers.

From a financial advice perspective, online fact finds present similar outstanding potential for revenue growth.

If the average adviser sees about 130 clients each year, that equates to 2.5 clients per week. By saving the adviser an average of 1.5 hours per client, AdvisorForms puts close to five working weeks back into the adviser's schedule each year.

Ongoing financial advice in Australia costs on average $3,450 per client each year. So if you were to pick up an extra 2.5 clients each week to fill the five extra weeks AdvisorForms has put back into your schedule, that's around $43,000 in additional revenue each year.

That's a conservative estimate. Clients with complex needs could deliver well above that figure in advice fees, and the efficiencies provided by AdvisorForms could allow you to service significantly more than 130 clients per year. Practices with more than one adviser could achieve multiples of that figure as AdvisorForms streamlines onboarding across the whole team.

The potential for revenue growth is undeniable.

Impress clients and turn them into fans

When a client meets you for the first time, they want to know they're in safe hands. Today, that means providing them with a seamless digital experience.

Banking, technology, energy, internet and insurance providers have set expectations high by offering customers digital access to their accounts with automatic prompts and alerts to help them complete tasks and stay on schedule.

Being forced to fill out paper forms during a fact find in the age of smartphones, tablets and apps makes the average client wonder what else in your business won't meet their expectations.

The clean modern design and effortless functionality of AdvisorForms makes a great first impression and reassures clients you're capable of providing the leading-edge customer experience they've come to expect.

Built-in error checking helps clients enter the right information into the form. You review and approve the data with a click and it automatically syncs with Xplan or your software system. It's simple, seamless and convenient — exactly the experience your clients want and are willing to pay more for.

Research consistently shows that the vast majority of customers are willing to pay more for a great customer experience, and the more expensive the product, the more they'll pay. Financial advice is a significant expense for the average Australian, but one they're willing to pay for if their experience matches or surpasses their expectations.

You never get a second chance to make a great first impression, which is why it's so vital that your first meeting with a client reassures them they're in safe hands. An intuitive digital onboarding experience does exactly that.

Keep your data safe and secure

A rewarding financial advice relationship is built on trust. The client has to trust the advice you provide to help them navigate complex and frequently changing tax rules and legislation. They also have to trust that any personal financial information they provide will be recorded and stored safely. Just like bad advice, a data breach can damage your client's trust in your practice — sometimes irreparably.

Beyond security, data quality is also a concern for advice practices that want to harness the full potential of client data. Bad data can quietly cost businesses a significant share of their revenue every year.

AdvisorForms protects data security and accuracy by preventing transcription errors and seamlessly passing approved data through to Xplan or another software system. Built-in error checking helps clients enter the right information, and automatic reminders are triggered to jog their memory if they forget to include something. Once information is provided, you can access it instantly.

No more waiting around for clients to mail or fax through documents — you have all the information you need right at your fingertips.

Get an extra five weeks back in your year

Stop wasting hours each week scanning, printing, posting and chasing forms. Put an extra five weeks back into your year and wow your clients with a seamless digital onboarding experience that surpasses their expectations. Ensure your data is error-free and compliant and avoid costly manual mistakes.

AdvisorForms from Umlaut can help you achieve all this while boosting revenue to expand your business.

If you'd like to find out how you can save time, service more clients and ensure data integrity by streamlining your client onboarding process, get in touch with us.