Digitising to meet the needs of today’s wealth management clients

The wealth management industry is in a state of flux. Client demographics are changing, as are their relationships with advisors. Increased pressure from regulators and tightening financial conditions are having a profound effect on wealth management firms. In the face of all this, advisors are keenly aware that things need to change. Question is, what? And how? 

To help advisors navigate through these turbulent times, Docusign recently hosted a webinar (now available on-demand) with Joncarl la Rosa, Head of Advice Innovation at Insignia Financial, who shared some fascinating insights around how Insignia is using technology to transform systems and processes. 

Here’s our wrap-up of the event.

“The client experience is critical”

Jennifer Lauchlan, Industry Lead – ANZ, Financial Services at Docusign, kicked things off with some key insights around the state of the wealth management market right now. Nodding to the significant changes rippling across the industry, she noted that more than 70% of growth firms believe an investment in technology will be a significant driver for success over the next five years. 

Why? Well, by spending smartly on technology, firms can enhance the client experience. Jennifer said, “As the world moves towards a more digitised and connected future, the client experience is where firms will spend their money in 2023.” 

See, as assets are passed down from older generations, more millennials will engage the services of wealth management firms — bringing their digital expectations with them. Millennials want seamless and integrated digital experiences. Plus, over 70% prefer to transact remotely. To win the business of this lucrative new market, firms need to lift their digital games. 

Already, leading wealth management firms are embracing digital tools to get out in front. Those that use Docusign to digitise the client experience have reported:

• 41% reduction on new customer onboarding times

• 68% decrease in turnaround times for contracts

• 52% reduction in paper-based contracts

• 71% boost to customer satisfaction

Metrics like these — plus the compelling fact that four in five wealth management firms that use eSignature have reported a decrease in hard dollar costs — prove the value of investing in a tool like Docusign eSignature. 

Insignia Financial embraces eSignature to make clients’ lives easier

Jennifer then invited Joncarl to share his perspectives on how and why Insignia Financial is using Docusign. Insignia (previously IOOF) is one of Australia’s leading wealth managers, offering a huge range of wealth management products and services designed to help nurture the financial wellbeing of clients.

As the Head of Advice Innovation, Joncarl leads decision-making around the digital advice technology that financial advisors use day-to-day, as well as managing the incumbent technology within the business. With a sharp focus on making clients’ lives easier, Joncarl and his team are always looking for ways to enhance the experience for clients and create efficiencies for the business and its advisors. 

Noting that, historically, the financial advice industry has been very paper-based — with piles of paperwork that clients need to sign and advisors need to manage — Joncarl said that the digitisation of contracts was an easy win for both the client experience and for advisors. “When we look at the advice process end-to-end, there are a number of friction points. If there are technology solutions that can remove the friction, it’s incumbent on me to bring it to the table.” 

And Docusign proved the perfect platform. It ticks a number of boxes for Joncarl and his team — from the basics of eSignature, to the security of client data and compliance with industry regulations. Fundamentally, it integrates with Wealth Central, which is Insignia’s proprietary advice technology that clients and advisors both use to manage all aspects of the wealth management process. 

As Joncarl said, “For me, it’s about the client experience and creating efficiencies for the advisor. Docusign serves these two pillars well.”

Elastic signing takes the experience to the next level

The webinar also included a demo of one of Docusign’s latest innovations — elastic signing. Designed to deliver a more optimized and cleaner user experience, elastic signing helps to simplify and expedite the end-to-end signing process.

In the demo, Docusign’s Edward Ratanasena showed how much faster and easier elastic signing is compared to previous digital processes for creating and completing agreements. Elastic signing is a lot more responsive. It’s dynamic, automatically changing to capture data and reflect the signer’s preferences or details. And it’s optimised for viewing, too, by bringing key information in the agreement up to the top of the document and presenting all data in a modern interface. 

Watch the webinar for Edward’s demonstration of elastic signing at work, and see what a difference it could make to both the onboarding process and ongoing client interactions in your wealth management firm.