Last Updated on December 14, 2020 by Carlo Navarro
Chances are, you got into the wealth management game because you love working with clients. Unfortunately, many financial advisors are relegated to managing a single account or only part of the client’s assets. A limited role paired with operational challenges makes it difficult to engage with clients in a way that adds the most value.
Instead of spending their time providing high-value advice to clients, they run the numbers on that single account. It doesn’t leave much room for adding value to clients…or growing AUM.
In the current era where managing the whole client is essential, this doesn’t cut it anymore. Yes, it’s difficult to get a complete picture of clients’ finances. With 401ks, held-away accounts, insurance, and other asset categories becoming increasingly siloed and hard to track, financial advisors face an uphill battle in getting their hands on — and providing clients with — a holistic financial picture.
Add to that the fact that current aggregation processes and clunky tools and you have the perfect recipe for frustration from both advisors and clients.
A “Mistake” That’s Music to the Ears
That’s what we thought had happened with one of our advisors.
It was just another typical Thursday morning in New York City as one experienced financial advisor began his day. He logged into Blueleaf and noticed one of his clients’ accounts had doubled.
Uh oh.
Fearing that a technical glitch had occurred, the Advisor sent a quick email to Blueleaf’s service team.
“Double-counting of account today… Can you look into it?”
He’s left the office hoping they fix their numbers before the client notices the mistake in his online portal. But the double value wasn’t ever fixed. And that’s the best part. Turns out, the doubled account wasn’t actually a doubled account. Nothing had gone wrong and there was no technical glitch. It was simply an increase in assets on the system.
How to Score Unexpected, Organic AUM Growth
Curious about how unexpected AUM growth can happen? It’s simple: a well-designed client portal plus account aggregation.
In this case, the client logged into his Blueleaf portal and added an additional $1.5 million to the platform, as the system encouraged him to. What the client really wanted was a complete picture of his finances. To achieve this, he logged into his client portal on a typical Thursday morning and added more accounts. It was easy enough for him to add those accounts entirely on his own, sans advisor involvement.
Neat trick, huh?
Welcome to a new concept for financial advisors: Organic AUM growth through client self-service.
Aggregate, Prospect, Advise, Grow
Here’s one quick piece of advice: do asset discovery early. The fastest-growing advisors on Blueleaf using the platform as a prospecting tool. They get a full picture of the prospect’s assets and liabilities upfront.
The first meeting becomes a discussion about how to solve the client’s challenges, not discovery. Moving fast to advice that adds value can result in much higher close rates in your prospecting. Understanding your client’s full financial picture allows you to be a better advisor. It also means no surprise account additions.
Blueleaf now makes it easy to see all assets and liabilities for a client. Custodial, held-away, offline assets and liabilities are all available in one place so you can monitor, report, and make decisions in context.
Sign up for a trial and test the platform with a couple of clients. Your clients’ will thank you for their regular email updates and their easy-to-use client portal. Prospects will be impressed with your insight and strategies based on their unique situation. You’ll get a much more complete view of each clients’ financial situation.
An Experience Your Clients Will Love.
Clients will love the service you deliver with Blueleaf’s superior client experience.
