In order to help firms be successful with their mobile strategy, there are seven best practices from an application design perspective that can help make mobile initiatives a success.

First, know your users. Observe how they obtain and process information. What types of activities cause them to initiate phone calls or online activities with your firm today?

Second, be sure to provide information and an interaction pattern that is appropriate for the channel. Mobility is not a “port your application” exercise. It is not wise to simply move your current solution to a new device. Consider the “who, why and what.” Think about who is the user, why they are coming to you, and then you will know what to make available and in what format. And, always design your solutions so that actions take less than three clicks to get to and less than five minutes to complete.

Third, it is important to prototype. By doing so, you can fail early, often and cheaply. Rapid iteration is key. Having an iterative development and design process will likely improve the final solution you bring to market.

Fourth, plan ahead as the mobile devices of today may not be the ones of tomorrow. Consider a cross platform approach versus development for specific devices. Doing so can better position you for adapting to new technology innovations in the future.

Fifth, don’t forget the feedback mechanism. Every mobile application should enable users to voice their opinion about your solution. Some of your best ideas or enhancements can come from your user community.

Sixth, become an advocate for the technology. It is important that you personally become an avid user of both tablets and smartphone solutions so that you have a solid foundation for providing direction and input on your mobile designs.

Lastly, be creative. Think beyond the obvious. How can you create a user experience that does not exist today? What information or function can you provide that is not currently available through traditional online means today? Remember, mobility is a unique opportunity to help improve the interactions your clients have with your firm.

• It is less expensive than using traditional marketing methods.  You are able to use Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube for free, so your only investment is time and/or the people resources at your firm to go “social.”
• Content can go viral quickly as one person shares information with another and so on.  As you publish pre-approved content, the format lends itself to quick forwarding or sharing, which can open the door to new prospects.
• It provides you with timely information about your clients.  As they make posts or tweet, you will be “in the know” about their new job, addition to the family, etc.  This creates a communication touch-point opportunity that you may have not otherwise known about.
• It increases awareness and demonstrates expertise.  With the proliferation of information online, having a web site is simply not enough.  Having a social media presence allows you to increase your online presence while at the same time demonstrate your knowledge and expertise through blogs, posts, etc.

Before you embark on your social media journey, one of the challenges of using social media is figuring out how to efficiently manage communication across multiple web sites.  There are tools and resources that can help you maximize your social media activities.  For example, HootSuite and TweetDeck allow you to post one update to multiple social media platforms, saving you time and effort.

From a regulatory perspective, it is a requirement that you have an archival and record keeping process in place.  Surveillance tools can help automate the tedious tasks of capturing and retaining all your social media messages for compliance purposes.

While you may not have jumped onto the social media bandwagon yet, the benefits and evolution of technology to support your social media efforts makes this an opportune time for you to seriously consider adding it as part of your prospecting and client servicing strategy.

First and foremost, the technology landscape has changed and is moving faster by the day. The evolution of the iPad has taken us all by storm. I have to remind myself regularly that the iPad was launched just in April 2010. It would be a dream-come-true if we could capture a percentage of that adoption for other advisor tools that are currently on the market. But nonetheless, it is fair to say not only that did the symposium’s presentations evangelize the power of the iPad, but also that it was obvious how tablets are changing the way advisors adopt technology. Advisors are now, more than ever, pushing technology providers, SunGard included, down the innovation path and at a quicker pace than ever anticipated.

Second, the method in which advisors perform financial planning is should evolve to be a “higher touch” experience. During George Kinder’s presentation titled, “Financial Planning as the Value Proposition” he spoke about how important it is to have deep emotional relationships with clients. This involves a great deal of listening and asking the non-financial questions to truly obtain the ultimate “goals” or “dreams” a client has. He quoted a statistic that 75% of clients would not refer their advisor to others. That is astonishing. In times when advisors have to work harder than ever to earn their clients trust, it seemed apparent that advisors could help re-establish trust through “life planning.” Based on this information, I am very interested to explore how technology can help advisors make the shift to this type of planning approach.

Lastly, I found the presentation by Cambridge Investment Research discussing their approach to social media very enlightening. Instead of fighting (or denying) the power of social media, they chose to embrace it for their advisors. They established a dedicated support team internally and then implemented social media monitoring software that allows their advisors to use LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook. Content has to be pre-approved and then software is used ongoing to monitor. They do not yet track revenue and referrals by virtue of social media, but they do have specific advisor testimonials that document how they have won new clients and revenue as a result of their efforts. In less than one year, they achieved over 15% adoption from their advisors.

There were several other quality presentations I did not get to touch on, but I am sure you can see from the little bit I have shared that technology and advisor interactions can have a strong positive impact on a client’s planning experience. Considering how much has changed, I greatly look forward to seeing what the symposium agenda will bring next year.

Advisors are also under pressure to grow revenue in an environment where clients are more sensitive and demanding than ever before. Studies over the years have shown that advisors rely heavily on referrals and increased wallet share from current clients to meet their growth targets. This puts increasing pressure on advisors to get out from under other administrative, non-productive activities and focus on spending more quality time with their clients.

In order for advisors to be successful, they need to have access to powerful technology to streamline the wealth management process. More and more firms are focusing on integration of data and processes in an effort to increase advisor productivity. Examples include having a robust client management system to capture client demographic information and integration of client-specific account data for portfolio analysis and reporting purposes.

The bottom line is that advisors need to have quick access to client information and integration of that data in a single platform. The data is most likely provided by many different systems but to the advisor, the experience is seamless so they can spend more time in front of clients.

How has your firm leveraged technology to increase advisor productivity? And what can SunGard do to support you further in those initiatives?

This is an opportune time for advisors to solidify their client relationships. Value-added services, such as financial planning, can make a difference. More than ever, investors are seeking advice and financial planning can easily become a cornerstone of a trusted relationship.

According to a 2009 study by the Society of Actuaries, LIMRA and the International Foundation for Retirement Education, only 23% of respondents had a written financial plan prior to retirement. A financial plan can be the first step to regaining investor confidence. While the degree of financial planning can vary based on the needs of the client, the information gleaned from the planning process can be invaluable. For many, just knowing “how close” or “far off” they are to meeting a reasonable retirement goal is important.

For advisors that have historically provided financial planning services, they cannot imagine life without this important step. For others, it is a new process that may seem time consuming to start. However, with the integration of financial planning technology with client-specific data, the value it brings to a client relationship can far exceed the small time investment required for a quick financial assessment. In many cases, the financial assessment can reveal other investment opportunities the advisor was not privy to before.

What type of financial planning tools or processes have you implemented? And do you think it has made a difference in restoring investor confidence?

During the advisory process, risk tolerance questionnaires often are established at the firm level and utilized with every new client and as an integral part of the client’s annual or semi-annual review meeting. Questionnaires may vary firm to firm, but generally attempt to identify the client’s risk tolerance through an average of 10 to 15 questions. The process may be manual on a piece of paper or entered into software to determine the results. Either way, the process is considered to be an essential element for compliance purposes.

While the risk tolerance questionnaire seems reasonable for having a consistent approach across the firm, recent market events beg the question of whether advisors are asking clients the “right” questions to truly ascertain their investment goals. Instead of asking “what is your investment return objective,” advisors should really ask, “how much loss can you withstand in your portfolio?” It is true that there are more sophisticated risk tolerance questionnaires that could be brought into the mix here, but there is a balancing act between having a solid understanding of a client’s risk tolerance and creating a process for advisors that is so time consuming that they bypass the true purpose of the questionnaire. Investors are seeking personalized discussions with their advisors more than ever before.

Understanding a client’s loss experience threshold is a valuable conversation that advisors should have with their clients. With the proposed regulations, every aspect of the advisory process will be reviewed, making this the optimal time to shift the paradigm from risk tolerance to loss management.

What do you think? We are interested to hear if you think firms will actually embrace more of a “loss experience” focus with their clients in the future.