Last Updated on December 17, 2020 by Carlo Navarro
Financial advisors struggle with data aggregation. It’s been described as everything from an intolerable headache to a saving grace, but most wealth management professionals don’t fully understand how much value held-away data brings to the advisor/client relationship.
In this article, we’ve compiled a list of uses for our account aggregation that can help you offer more proactive insights to clients and add differentiated value to your brand.
1. Holistic Wealth Management: Let’s begin here. Modern clients are looking for a one-stop shop where they can get advice on all of their accounts, not just the ones you manage for them. Blueleaf data aggregation gives you the ability to do that.
2. Influencing Client Growth: By seeing the entire financial picture, the advisor is able to make recommendations for new investments and influence clients who want to move money. That’s a differentiating service offering that can help you increase AUM.
3. Automated Onboarding: New clients don’t want to spend hours filling out forms and hunting down old financial statements. With Blueleaf data aggregation in our client portal, firms can offer automated onboarding that takes minutes, not hours.
4. Consolidated Reporting: No one wants to log in to multiple websites or get reams of paper reports in the mail every month. That’s not necessary when all client accounts are aggregated into Blueleaf. Consolidated reporting can be one of your core offerings.
5. Whole Client Allocation: Blueleaf allocates all holdings automatically using industry-standard categories or custom allocations that you can create in our settings menu. Advisors can use this information to structure managed portfolios to balance the allocation mix of held-away assets, such as a 401(k) or pension fund.
6. Aggregate Performance: We also track performance on held-away accounts, making it possible to view aggregate performance across all client assets. This can separate you from your competitors and alleviate client concerns during tumultuous market periods.
7. Seamless Integrations: Most account aggregation software doesn’t parse the data and deliver it by household. Balances, transactions, and holdings are fed via API to your planning and risk management tools, giving your clients a more seamless experience.
Check out a blog post we wrote:
Wealth Advisors Have a BlackBerry Problem…and Digital is Making it Worse
8. Data Portability: The number crunchers in your analytics department might prefer excel spreadsheets over fancy dashboards. No problem. Blueleaf data is exportable via CSV and can be adapted to any spreadsheet application.
9. Branded Viewing: Clients are logging into Blueleaf to see their aggregated accounts, but they are doing it through a log-in page branded with your name and logo on it. That page is fully customizable, so feel free to redesign it and make it your own.
10. Regular Updates: Blueleaf is the only advisor-level aggregation platform that will send your clients regular email updates on all of their account balances. We can also compile and automatically email weekly or monthly performance reports.
11. First Line of Defense: There are few things more satisfying than spotting a loss on an account someone else opened for your client. That insight is an opening for an advisor to build AUM. Clients should be open to suggestions when you alert them in this manner.
12. Fraud Detection: Clients often use multiple credit and debit cards for transactions, making them more likely victims for identity theft and fraud. The Blueleaf client portal displays all transactions in one place, making it easier to spot fraudulent charges.
13. Pro-active Recommendations: Viewing all assets and liabilities in one place gives the advisor the insights to make pro-active recommendations. Examples of this are advice to increase savings or pay off high-interest credit cards.
14. Center of Influence: This might be the most important item on this list. By positioning yourself as a holistic wealth manager, you become the sole center of influence for your clients. This will keep them away from competitors and digital financial apps.
Financial data aggregation is not a new concept, and it’s certainly not unique to Blueleaf. There are a number of applications that offer it, usually as an add-on or secondary feature. Our team doesn’t view it that way. Data aggregation is a core function for our platform.
Connecting to client accounts is pretty common, but the way in which we use that data is what sets us apart from other systems. The points laid out above provide insight into how our client portal and advisor dashboard can add value to your practice and differentiate you from your competitors. To learn more about that, contact a Blueleaf coach today.
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