The financial advisory sphere has already seen incredible innovation over the past year, but that there will be new trends in how FAs deal with their customers – as well as a change in the products that clients really want.
Before the pandemic, virtual financial advice was rare, but with changes in the working environment taking place, FAs have been asking themselves how they can extend the value of their relationships online.
On one level, online meetings can save a lot of time, and in some ways, improve accessibility. An online advisor can be requested for discussion much faster than they would in the physical world of traffic jams and over-running meetings.
Studies have shown that once clients become comfortable with their advisor relationship having a virtual dimension, the vast majority are satisfied with this medium for certain future engagements. While it’s unlikely that online consultations will fully replace face-to-face meetings following the pandemic, it was a relief that people were so willing to evolve and accept new mediums of interaction.
At present South African regulation and legislation is going through a profound and unprecedented process of changing what advice needs to deliver to consumers. This process is called Retail Distribution Review (RDR) and is seeing a number of key changes in the law around, amongst other things, what advisors do and how they will be paid.
The following are especially important changes we will see in the future advice landscape:
