Wealth financial advisor client engagement shouldn’t be time consuming
How often do you engage with your wealth management clients? By “engage,” we’re not just referring to any kind of interaction – like sending a monthly report.
“Engagement” goes beyond simple contact with a client. It involves in-depth, meaningful communication that has value for both clients and advisors. Once upon a time, the default for client-advisor interactions was a lunch or another kind of in-person meeting.
Whether we like it or not, this has changed.
A few years ago, just under half of one survey’s respondents claimed that they preferred in-person meetings, with 57% opting for phone calls. More recently, 55% of HNWIs claim that digital channels are fundamental when choosing a wealth management firm.
As digital channels and interaction capabilities become more common, we can expect a similar shift in client needs and expectations.
Clients still want to hear from you
Just because client preferences are moving towards fewer meetings and more digital-based interactions, doesn’t mean that the quality, authenticity, or frequency of these interactions should suffer.
The first two should, for all intents and purposes, remain the same – while frequency should increase compared to pre-digital channel norms. To put it simply, a personalized experience is more important than ever before.
An Accenture study found that 39% of clients want more proactive outreach from their advisors and 28% would want more client meetings too.

In fact, one study found that 9 out of 10 clients credit the “frequency of advisor communication and information sharing” as a crucial factor in staying with a firm or making a referral.
Another study found that, “61% of investors who worked with an advisor strongly agreed that they had better-quality investments and higher returns because of their advisor’s guidance.” Client loyalty hinges on good communication – this is the key to stronger client relationships.
Managing your client-facing time
No matter what way you look at it, client engagement is vital for a healthy ongoing relationship. However, it appears that most advisors are struggling to meet client expectations when it comes to the frequency and quality of their interactions.
As a frame of reference, the Accenture study cited above shows that clients want more communication – so why aren’t advisors communicating?
Often, it simply comes down to time. While the number of clients any one financial advisor has can vary widely, it often falls somewhere between 50 and 150 people.
For one individual to manage that number of individuals, never mind building strong client relationships with them, is challenging.
Create more time through efficiency best practices
Overcoming this challenge to create more engaged clients requires addressing it from a number of angles. Firstly, it is important to help advisors or relationship managers to create more time for client-facing activities.
According to McKinsey & Company, “managers report spending almost three-quarters of their time on tasks not directly related to talent management.” These administrative or non-core tasks are not only time-consuming, but they also contribute very little to ongoing value generation.
Behind-the-scenes organization
There is no one way to improve efficiency. Generally, it is a culmination of a number of approaches and best practices. That said, there is a lot to be said for having a streamlined platform for communication.
The days of email are behind us. Now, we can manage interactions much more effectively, with hubs that allow for a one-stop-shop for all channels, digital tools, quick views of previous interactions, and much more. By getting this set up, advisors can cut down on those non-core tasks that are taking up so much of their time and turn to what they do best – interacting with clients.
Embrace the power of AI
AI has matured to a point where it has a number of viable use cases that can improve advisor efficiency. And the number of applications is growing every day.

Get proactive with client conversations
It is important to engage with current clients – but not all “engagements” should be the digital equivalent of a sit-down lunch. Frequent, low-level interactions that provide value or spark conversations that lead to larger interactions are essential in any wealth management relationship.
There are a couple of ways that advisors can approach this to improve client retention.
Secure messaging apps for ongoing conversations
Popular messaging apps like WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger are wonderful, except they are neither secure nor compliant. Misuse of these platforms has led to billions in fines. That said, there is a valid point here. Happy clients do like using these types of messaging apps for ongoing, asynchronous communication.
This is where Secure Messenger really provides extra value by offering a similar experience to popular apps, while also being secure and compliant. In this way, financial advisors can improve client engagement without exposing themselves or their clients to risk.

Broadcasting using labels
For advisors who have lots of clients, reaching out – even on convenient platforms like Secure Messenger – can mean a substantial amount of work. After all, there’s no guarantee that the average client will be interested and curating those messages can be time consuming for little payoff.
By combining features in the behind-the-scenes area of the client interaction platform with message broadcasting (with or without AI help in writing), it is possible to spark conversations with multiple clients at once.

Simply separate clients into distinct labels according to their interests or investment requirements.
Then, when something of relevance arises, you can message all of them at once. This not only improves the frequency of interactions, but can lead to more opportunities for genuine engagement.
Increase the quality of your high-value interactions
When it comes time to truly engage with your clients, it is important to have the right communication tools to facilitate a highly collaborative session. Video & Voice capabilities are of course essential to achieve this – but aren’t always enough on their own.
Co-Browsing and Co-Apping
Say for example you need to discuss a particular investment opportunity or carry out research together, Co-Browsing – and its mobile equivalent Co-Apping – are essential interactive tools for high-touch collaboration.

With a host of features, such as highlighting, annotation, and more, as well as strict privacy protocols, you can onboard new or prospective clients, provide financial advice, or simply support your clients as if you were in the same room.
Document Collaboration
Likewise, when you need to collaborate on reports, contracts, agreements or similar documents, knowing you can not only share them without risk but work on them together is paramount.

Tech tools like Document Collaboration allow you to engage in real-time on all comment document types, such as PDF, Word, Excel.
This impacts up both the quality and the speed of high-value conversations, allowing you to engage more thoroughly and authentically with your client base.
Digital client interaction platforms for client satisfaction
The ability to improve efficiency in non-core activities impacts the quality of financial advisors services. Building strong advisor-client relationships is an ongoing process that must take clients’ mindsets into consideration.
Authentic engagement isn’t just about annual meetings or better financial planning tools. It’s about adapting communication styles to specific situations, offering personalized communication options across the entire client journey.
Previous client service models don’t cut it anymore. From qualified leads to converting new clients to the onboarding process and beyond, the individual financial journey needs to be a personal and memorable experience. Actual advice, while important, should be balanced with varying levels of proactive communication and active listening.
The only way to achieve this is with an end-to-end digital client interaction platform that is secure, reliable and easily accessible. Whether the client wants to contact you from the client portal or on a messaging app, the experience should be the same.
Interested in finding out more?
