Tim Morris, financial adviser at Russell and Co, says he uses Intelliflo, which gives clients access to update their fact finds. As well as their personal details, many also add their assets, liabilities and expenditure.
Morris adds: “I use the client portal a lot more now than a year ago, partly because we now use it for clients to sign documents electronically. This has been a game changer.”
While some advisers have a fully digitally integrated fact-finding system, for other IFAs who may not have done so as fully, the pandemic has still given them more flexibility over how to conduct fact finds.
For example, Scott Gallagher, director at Rowley Turton, says he still prefers to speak to the clients when doing the fact find, but the lockdowns have meant that he can make better use of time by having the meetings via Zoom, as well as over the phone.
“Zoom has become a lot more accepted by advisers and clients. It is no longer an alien concept,” Gallacher adds.
“I do a lot of fact finding just on the first phone call. People ring me up and say 'I am interested in this' and I just ask people questions, and because they have called you they are quite happy to talk. A 30-minute phone call can elicit a lot of information and save a lot of time for clients.”
Future of advice
It is unlikely that the trend of advisers embracing technology in the way they have done will be reversed.
The Lang Cat's Barrett says: “People try to predict what life will look like, but there are way too many variables, in terms of [customer and business owner desires]. If you speak to 10 advisers, you will get 10 different views.
“I don’t think there will be much unwinding of what has gone in place already. However far down this path of digitising the process we go, I don’t think [advisers] are going to dial it back to paper.”
Environmental, societal and governance factors are also likely to feature in fact finds more prominently, even though the full implementation of the new ESG regulations in the UK have been deferred for the immediate future.
McKenna says: “Like it or not, this is now going to become a mandatory part of all advice processes and it probably makes sense for advisers to start making such changes voluntarily now to gain experience before they become compulsory.
“It will be crucial to understand the extent of an individual’s feelings on ESG issues, how much return they are willing to surrender to follow the ESG principles and which particular sectors or issues they have personal feelings on.
