While it’s clear that technology can provide answers to some of the gaps in financial advice and provide more accessibility to those with perhaps smaller pots to invest. It is also evident that we are just at the very beginning of what technology could be capable of. In our last blog, we mentioned the WeChat app in China and all our delegates agreed that access to bank accounts would give providers most of the data they needed in order to give robust guidance or advice.
The Treasury is already behind a plan to deliver an open API standard in UK banking and there is clearly an appetite for tools such as ApplePay and PayPal so it is not surprising that this is the next step, particularly as the younger generation would see it as the norm. And if the industry is serious about developing robo advice and guidance then it will need access to lots of data on income, expenditure, lifestyle etc.
While the kit to capture the data could be built it would still need some form of distribution network so that the customer didn’t have to input it all. The Fitbit craze is a great example of company’s being very clever about collecting data. Health and Life insurance specialist Vitality is a really good example of an organisation which has done just that. It rewards customers for staying fit and collects data through a wearable device which records health and fitness activity.
Consequently, as robo advice and digital solutions evolve, technology skill sets and creative thinkers who can think outside the box to help deliver those solutions will start to become ever more important.
Our roundtable debated issues such as the financial advice gap and the difference between guidance and advice, the need for more engagement, consumer segmentation, the future of the IFA, and the tech generation.
Download: The New Rules of Enagement
Our roundtable debated issues such as the financial advice gap and the difference between guidance and advice, the need for more engagement, consumer segmentation, the future of the IFA, and the tech generation.
