Industry insider reflects on the positive impact of technology
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More technology disruption please was the cry from one financial planner at the Wealth Professional Leadership and Tech Summit in Toronto yesterday.
Julia Chung, co-founder and partner at Spring Financial Planner, which provides conflict-free financial planning, said that tech was the lifeblood of her business.
From connecting her to business partner Sandi Martin to helping form plans and dealing with clients across the country, technology has increased the scope and capabilities of the practice.
Social media, in particular, has allowed the pair to get their personalities in front of like-minded people and potential clients.
She said: “A lot of people find us on social media because my partner Sandi is very noisy! She has lots of opinions and asks lots of questions and does not care about what people think about her opinions at all.
“That’s the problem with a lot of the financial services and social media. For example, they are only allowed to put out these seven approved things that we talked about but none of these things let the client know about you.
“The clients need to know about you because we are in a trust position. We need to be able to earn that trust and build on that trust, and social media is one of the ways they get to know us. I read somewhere that you have to be in front of a person seven times before they think about calling you. Social media is one of those ways, so they can learn about you and learn about what you think and believe, and say ‘oh, that matches me’.”
While some in the planning industry may feel threatened by the rise of robo and the new ways of communicating, Chung said that without it, building Spring Financial Planner would have been impossible.
She said that with Martin living in Gravenhurst, Ontario and her in Vancouver, that applies not just to logistics but also to data.
She said: “Financial planning is very, very complex. You need really good software because you need access to data. The amount of data we need to gather from clients is exhausting and being able to do that in a digital way makes it easier for us.
“We use NaviPlan but if a robo-advisor is a really good fit for our client, we will partner with them and say this is the way we want to work. A nice thing about a robo is they might give us access to the client’s information and we can see it and fold it into the plan. But it’s very separate and not part of the planning process.”
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