Speaking at the firm’s annual conference in London on Wednesday, CEO Ben Goss described the firm’s new AccessAdvice offering as a ‘force multiplier’ for advisers.
According to Goss, a survey of Distribution Technology’s client base revealed that, while there was a desire to interact with lower value cases, the time required and thus the cost to provide the advice made most such cases uneconomic.
However, he said, the growth of smartphone usage and the surge in willingness to interact with services, including financial services online, is providing a significant opportunity. Which is where the new service comes in.
Demonstrating the prototype that the firm has been testing with about 50 firms, Goss explained that advisers will be able to white label the client-facing app, which will be integrated into the firm’s Dynamic Planner tool. Advisers will be able to deliver their own product, platform and and investment recomendations, their own planning rules and suitability rules, through a fully automated, digital advice service that can be accessed via a smartphone.
Initially it will only support ISA advice, Goss said, but Distribution Technology plans to expand the service to cover more complex needs in future iterations.
Goss said: “Initial feedback has been excellent with advisers reporting that AccessAdvice” could revolutionise business by reducing the time to service clients from a few hours to a few minutes. This opens a significant new market, estimated by the ONS and FCA to be 15 million people with investments of less than £100,000 but more than £1,000.”
The firm said it has already begun testing the service with some of its major clients and will now begin working with advisers to test the prototype and ensure that the product meets their needs. It will also look to integrate any receomendations that come from the FAMR review.
As yet, DT has not finalised the pricing of the new service, but Goss said, the firm is keen to ensure that the process is easy to adopt.
