Despite advances in technology, financial advisers are still faced with too much paperwork and a lack of skilled back office staff, major providers told the InvestorInfo Wraps, Platforms and Masterfunds conference last week.
They said advisers were pleading for straight-through processing (STP) – integration of back and front office systems – to help their businesses and clients.
“This unfortunately hasn’t been well understood,” Infocomp managing director Rob De Dominicis said.
“We are so grossly inefficient in what we are doing that it’s unfair to the consumer,” De Dominicis said.
According to Forrester Research, redundant data entry costs the industry $123 million each year.
De Dominicis cited a 2006 report from the Investment and Financial Services Association that called for the industry to make significant improvement in technologies.
He said product standardisation was needed, as was better education for advisers on technological developments.
“We do need the industry to do this and it’s going to be a hard slog,” he said.
“We are not educating IFAs (independent financial advisers). When you talk to them about STP and new technology, it just loses them.”
He said platform providers were a central focus.
“Platforms have changed the way IFAs interact with data sources. Accuracy can be better and STP can help you get better accuracy and lower costs.”
Advisers are now less concerned with functionality and more concerned with how software can help their business expand, Coin Software managing director Tony Graham said.
“Engaging with advisers now is about how [we] can help them grow [their] business,” Graham said.
He said Coin was “dumbing down the applications” and tailoring software to an adviser’s particular needs.
According to Iress Market Technologies head of wealth management Andrew Walsh, a full STP offering is still not available anywhere in the market.
“The STP evolution will be slow . . . but it will become a differentiator,” Walsh said.
Financial planning software manufacturing remains highly competitive, with Macquarie Bank-owned Coin and Iress – owner of Visiplan and Xplan – controlling the lion’s share.
