Innovation Awards: Innovation in Client Engagement — RBC Wealth Management

With artificial intelligence quickly transforming the ways in which financial advisors and wealth management firms do business, Financial Planning is recognizing outstanding work in the field. 

Our inaugural Innovation Awards honor tech firms that are developing cutting-edge technology for use in marketing, client onboarding, investment strategy, lead generation and specialized planning. Wealth management firms are recognized for their efforts in automation, marketing, client engagement and professional development.

Special Innovator of the Year awards will be bestowed on two of these firms at ADVISE AI, Financial Planning's AI conference Oct. 9-10 in Las Vegas. Registration for the event is open.

View a list of all 2024 Innovation Award winners here.

Stronger engagement with advisors and clients is pivotal to the RBC Wealth Management-U.S. tech-powered strategy — down to making sure advisors know all of their clients' financial events. 

Diving deep into the client engagement side, RBC Wealth Management-U.S. partnered with TIFIN AG to create an AI program that helps advisors track client behaviors and respond to their financial movements. Called AI-Powered Insights, the program identifies which clients might be moving their funds due to a financial event like selling a house or a business or inheriting money. It also provides a list of leads to advisors through RBC Wealth Management's advisor desktop platform supported by Salesforce. 

This can help advisors grow their new client base and potentially consolidate assets with RBC Wealth Management — which is particularly important when high net worth clients store their assets across three to five financial service providers, the firm said. It estimates their clients alone have $500 billion at other financial institutions. 

READ MORE: RBC rolls out AI-based tools to financial advisors

RBC Wealth Management-U.S. has been tracking the assets gained through AI-Powered Insights versus other origin sources and found that for every three phone calls made to clients, advisors garnered at least one commitment to bring assets over. Advisors surveyed also said 78% of the leads generated through the program have opportunities for money in motion. 

The firm's "advisors say AI-Powered Insights helps them anticipate client needs and provide more value to clients. Campaign Central helps financial advisors connect with prospects and clients in a timely and efficient way that facilitates deeper connections," said Greg Beltzer, head of technology for RBC Wealth Management-U.S. "Those human connections are an essential part of creating long-lasting relationships — and that's the ultimate goal."

AI-Powered Insights, which launched in February 2024, is available to the firm's more than 2,100 advisors.