By Joman Kwong, Strategic Solutions Manager for Financial Services at Laserfiche
From bartering to Bitcoin, the history of money spans thousands of years and thousands more forms. Money isn’t simply metal coins or paper banknotes—it’s a store of value, a conduit for trade, and the intangible assets, property, and resources owned by an individual or organisation.
Today, money has progressed far from the grain, clay, and reeds first hand traded by the Mesopotamians in 5000 BCE. Of the $60 trillion total value of the world’s wealth, just one-tenth is now held as physical cash. The remaining 90% exists as digital value on computer servers and is electronically moved between parties in lieu of material payment.
Digital money has played a big role in the rise of globalisation. However, this also means that any economic downturns are felt far more widely. Recent challenges around supply chains, geopolitics, energy shortages and price inflation have slowed global growth, with countries like the UK teetering around recession. But for wealth management firms, this instability could prove lucrative—if they pivot to a new style of governance.
Navigating the downturn
As Capgemini’s ‘Top trends in wealth management for 2023’ report states, “Uncertain economic times can offer wealth management firms the opportunity to lead and showcase expertise.” However, wealth management remains a sensitive area, with many customers retaining traditional values and preferring the perceived security and simplicity of physical cash and paper-based documentation.
As a result, some firms are still unwilling to risk pivoting their processes to more efficient and secure digital means. But as the headline asks, today’s money is mostly digital—so why isn’t its management? The perks are almost endless, from the elimination of repetitive tasks to stronger, less time-consuming regulatory compliance. So, let’s explore the benefits of using a cloud content services platform for financial services and wealth management in a little more detail.
Accelerating productivity
Firstly, the implementation of digital tools enables firms to streamline business processes and minimise operational costs through automated back-office work. Low-code process automation tools reduce the manual steps involved in managing internal and client-facing processes, for instance, by pre-populating information and digitising review and approval stages.
Fortunately, modern automation tools are ultra-simple to implement, too. Low-code/no-code drag-and-drop platforms allow even the most non-technical users to design and build processes from scratch, kick-starting automation right away without lengthy development, business disruption, or large IT spend and resources. Ultimately, these digital experiences often result in greater client and employee satisfaction, with advisors having more time to interact with clients, back-office employees enjoying the chance to carry out more fulfilling work and clients receiving speedier, smoother engagement. And this is just the beginning of automation’s potential.
Streamlining onboarding
Straight-through processing (STP) is a method that helps financial organizations automate transactions, reducing the chances of bottleneck and human error. And while it’s already used by many wealth management firms as part of their new account opening processes, there are still gaps in the speed, security, and efficiency of the system.
Establishing STP through a unified, integrated cloud content management system enables firms to improve accountability, speed of search, workflow automation and information management, resulting in maximised productivity and outstanding client experiences. Some content services platforms (CSPs) even enable financial services firms to open a new client account in less than 30 mins. After all, first impressions count—and firms with integrated STP and CMS can provide outstanding client onboarding that cultivates a long-standing customer relationship.
Supporting compliance
Meanwhile, strict finance and capital market rules and regular regulatory changes are making it tougher for many firms to uphold high levels of service. However, their wealth management advisors hold key responsibilities like investment expertise—they must be allowed to focus on getting value for their clients, rather than using precious hours to comply with regulatory demands.
Centralising clients’ wealth management on a cloud-based platform enables permission-based, secure data collaboration. The system can also automatically retain all communication and documents with a full metadata, automated records retention policies and audit trail, creating readily available audit reports. This way, firms can simplify their audits, swiftly address law changes, and minimise the risk of non-compliance, all while concentrating on delivering outstanding client service.
Securing information
Finally, we must consider the all-important issue of security. With record-breaking online hacks and leaks regularly in the news, it admittedly makes sense that many people prefer to keep confidential records under physical lock and key. Though it may somewhat require a leap of faith, in reality, the electronic storage of information and wealth is far more secure. Paper always carries the risk of being lost, stolen, or even destroyed. Electronic records, on the other hand, remain in place and often use an automated audit trail to track all activities made on documents who has accessed them.
Empower your wealth management
Ultimately, wealth management is all about helping people to make the most of their money, in the way that they prefer. If traditional cash and paper documents are strongly favoured by a client, it’s hard to sway them in a different direction without risking harm to the relationship. But for those ready to join the digital revolution, now is the time to support this transition.
To do so, wealth management firms need to empower their advisors to focus on the client experience. And as we continue to navigate stormy economic waters, wealth management staff and firms using the latest technologies (https://www.laserfiche.com/solutions/financial-services/wealth-management/?utm_source=todays-money-is-mostly-digital&utm_medium=pr&utm_campaign=banking-and-finance) will free up expertise, stand out from the crowd—and enjoy the best chance to earn significant wealth of their own.
