Greater technology adoption amongst financial advisers
Findings from FE fundinfo’s 2022 Adviser Survey highlight the accelerated use of technology amongst financial advisers, consistent with the growth experienced in this area in 2021. Greater financial investment in technology strongly backs this trend with nearly 70% of advisers increasing their technology budgets over the past year and more than 70% of these advisers doing so in order to aid business efficiency.
81% of adviser respondents acknowledged the opportunities to attract more business that technology adoption can offer, however a lack of integration between solutions was sighted as the main barrier to embedding more technology into adviser businesses.
To explore more key insights for Fund Managers and Fund Distributors from our 2022 Adviser Survey, join us in our upcoming webinar.
Key survey results
of financial advisers increased their technology spend over the last 12 months.
of financial advisers increased their technology spend to aid business efficiency.
of financial advisers see technology as an opportunity to attract more business.
The opportunity for Fund Managers
Fund Managers have an opportunity to complement financial advisers’ technology stack to further enhance business efficiencies and support them in embedding digital solutions for their clients, but there are other impacts that Fund Managers should be considering too.
Quality data dissemination
The increase in adoption and steady growth of technology use puts a greater focus on ensuring that quality, enriched data is being distributed from Fund Managers into adviser tools, in real time. Two of the most commonly used tools by advisers, cashflow modelling (84%) and risk profiling (80%), play a key part in advising investors.
Ensuring that fund data and documents are validated and disseminated in a timely and targeted manner enables the efficient use of these tools and facilitates accurate decision making for advisers when aligning investments to individual investor preferences.
ESG education and documentation
Another opportunity is evident in the provision of digital marketing documents and investor education in areas such as ESG, with 93% of advisers either having developed, or planning to develop, an ESG investment proposition. Advisers feel that there is still a sense of uncertainty amongst investors when it comes to ESG investing, due to ongoing fears of greenwashing, a lack of clear standards and definitions across the industry, and availability of comparable and consistent data.
Fund managers have an opportunity to address this by producing digital engagement tools and documents to help educate advisers and their clients and clearly report and promote their ESG capabilities.
The significance of this documentation will be greater felt with the update to MiFID II requirements on 2 August this year, requiring advisers with clients in the EU to demonstrate they have considered their clients’ ESG preferences, if any, in their suitability assessments. Those advisers must document their clients’ ESG preferences and only recommend products that completely satisfy these; changes to client preferences must also be clearly documented to ensure the advice remains suitable. Similar requirements for UK advisers are expected to be considered by the FCA in the coming months.
Fund managers can support advisers in meeting these obligations through the transfer of necessary ESG data via the European ESG Template (EET) V1 and European MiFID Template (EMT) V4. Providing the necessary data also helps funds get through advisers’ filters when meeting their clients’ preferences.
Helping Fund Managers seize the opportunity
FE fundinfo offers a range of data and document dissemination, digital engagement and document production tools that seamlessly enable the transfer of fund data and documents through to critical adviser engagement tools.
These services include:
Data management and dissemination including the validation and enrichment of data to ensure accurate, quality data is distributed directly into adviser tools such as FE Analytics.
Production of marketing documents such as fact sheets and digital engagement tools to clearly report ESG capabilities and educate end investors.
Publication of fund information and documents on free to access platforms, acknowledged by local market regulators, such as fundinfo.com and Trustnet.
For more information on how we can help you address these key opportunities contact us.
Download the full report for an in-depth insight into the UK retail financial advice industry in 2022.
