Financial advisors are increasingly using data aggregators to help them get a handle on all of their client’s accounts in one comprehensive online format. Data aggregation allows both the advisor and their client to see the same data and provides the advisor a full picture of all of their client’s accounts in one place. Clients increasingly say they value this feature, and it is a consideration in their choosing an advisor to work with.
Why are data aggregators important?
Many clients have multiple accounts in addition to the money they have invested directly through the custodian your firm works with. This can include a 401(k), various bank accounts, outside investment accounts and other types of accounts.
Data aggregation allows both you and your client to see all of this information in one place, making client financial reviews more productive. Data aggregation additionally helps to ensure that everyone is seeing both the same information and has a complete financial picture. This can help you and your client focus on what’s important, providing your clients with top-notch financial advice, versus spending time gathering information from them about other accounts and then having to enter this information into your internal system or a spreadsheet.
Do they benefit all advisor’s businesses?
The concept of data aggregation should be appealing to most, if not all financial advisors. The issue isn’t the appeal of having all of the information in one spot in an easy to access fashion. Rather it might be viewed as overkill by some advisors.
An advisor would need to look at factors such as the size of their practice and the nature of their client’s holdings. For example, a small, solo advisor would have to weigh the cost of the technology versus the benefit they and their clients would derive.
The other side of that coin is that perhaps this advisor’s business might be hindered by a lack of technology and client data tools such as data aggregation. In this case the investment in both time and money to get this set up could pay off exponentially in the future for them.
Tools like data aggregation are becoming increasingly critical for growing advisory firms. We saw this trend accelerating in 2020 and expect it to continue into 2021 and beyond. Let AssetBook show you how Pulse can help you manage your client data and how we integrate seamlessly with the top data aggregators in the business.