Transcription:
Ryan Neal : (
Hello everybody. And welcome to financial plannings. Invest connect, uh, our annual wealth tech conference. Um, welcome everybody from, uh, wherever you are joining us. We're happy to have you. Uh, I am Ryan Neal, financial plannings technology coming to you live from our, uh, financial plannings Northern Manhattan office, AKA my, uh, Washington Heights apartment. And, uh, I'm really excited. We're gonna have a great day, uh, great sessions all day today, but, uh, we're getting started with, um, uh, uh, a personal connection of mine, uh, Trisha Huskins from fidelity. Welcome Trisha, where are you coming in from today?
Tricia Haskins: (
Oh, hi Ryan. Good more morning. I'm actually coming in from right outside of Boston, from my office in the suburbs of Boston. So it's great to see you.
Ryan Neal : (
Great to see you as well. And you know, I, I'm really excited to get back to in-person meetings again, but I do still love the ability that we can all call in from, uh, anywhere in the world, uh, anywhere we're at. Uh, it's great. Um, so again, I'm, uh, a technology editor here at, to plan Trisha. Do you wanna just give our viewers, uh, anyone who's title, uh, just a really quick introduction to yourself?
Tricia Haskins: (
Absolutely. Thanks. Yeah. Uh, Trisha Haskins, uh, from fidelity investments and I'm responsible for integration solutions. I like to say that, uh, I'm responsible for, for helping to provide the tools for firms and advisors to see the art of the possible. So for integrations exchange, as you well know, Ryan, our online digital store, uh, that includes our FinTech marketplace and includes our custom integrations, whether that's APIs, uh, transmission service, server alerts, so on and so forth. Uh, I'm responsible for that here, uh, at fidelity for the institutional business. Um, I've been in the business for over 25 years, uh, focused on technology, uh, financial services technology. So I am just thrilled to be here today to talk about some of the new trends in personalization and technology.
Ryan Neal : (
Great. And I think personalization, uh, uh, you know, for my reporting is it's one of the biggest topics the industry right now, we see it happening all over the place. And we're gonna come back to that a little bit, but, um, we, we started off in our, our, our talks before we, uh, did this, uh, about some new, uh, data that fidelity had. You know, we're, we're obviously we're virtual, the pandemic is still happening, although hopefully we're, we're coming out of it. Um, and, and you guys did a study on how advisors' relationship to technology has changed the pandemic. And I thought it was kind of fitting if we're kicking off this virtual event. Maybe we could talk about that. Uh, what, what did fidelity find, how has, uh, advisors, uh, uh, connects with technology? How has it changed?
Tricia Haskins: (
Yeah, thanks for, thanks this. So this is really interesting. Um, throughout the course of the pandemic, we've done a couple different studies and this specific one that, that we had discussed earlier was, um, really digging into understanding the impact of the pandemic on how advisors work. Cuz if you think about it, the wealth management business, uh, historically really has been set up in a way that, um, that the, the, the relationships and the, the interactions were really focused on in person. And that is, you know, ranging from, uh, advisors' relationships with their investors, with their investor clients. And, but then also those folks in the back office, the home office, um, inside the firm was really focused on that in person. So, you know, with nine outta 10 advisors moving to, you know, outside the office as a result of the pandemic, it really threw a lot of that into flux.
Tricia Haskins: (
What we did see was that for those firms that had embraced technology and, and we could talk about the different ways they'd already they'd begun embracing technology, but really saw it as a strategic differentiator was many of them saw that it helped them to retain clients. And in fact, uh, 86% of the advisors that we surveyed in that particular study saw that their use of technology helped them retain in clients. And interestingly it helped, um, them, uh, with, uh, acquiring new clients as well. Um, so that was something that was interesting that, that, that their, their technology used throughout the course of the pandemic. And it was 84%. And one of the things that we, we don't often talk about, but I think is really important was the level of, of job satisfaction as well, that 81% of those firms that use technology well, um, saw that they had an increase in, in job satisfaction.
Tricia Haskins: (
So there's a lot of benefits to using technology and technology well, and I think, you know, going forward, you know, a follow up study that we did was we've heard from different firms that they saw the, the benefits ongoing. So they said, you know what? We have now have the ability to see more people. And that's through, you know, the use of collaboration tools and, and video chat and things like that, video conferencing and things like that. Um, and another important, um, uh, benefit that they saw was that they able to expand their geographic reach beyond their, the locality within which they sat. And I thought that was what a tremendous benefit, the use of technology giving that, um, that, uh, one on one, you know, you feel like you're, you're you're together. Um, but also expanding. So, you know, post-pandemic, what we saw in another study that we did was that, um, the expectation of advisors is that, that, that they expect, uh, remote work or at least, you know, partial, remote work, hybrid work to continue.
Tricia Haskins: (
Um, they expected that, uh, paperless, which was, is a great benefit of technology that would continue, um, and they expected video conferencing to continue, um, with an interesting, um, one of the interesting subsets of that was that the gen Z advisors, uh, expected to continue to, uh, use video at a higher rate than, um, than the boomer, um, um, advisors as well look likely, although this wasn't part of the study likely driven by client, um, expectation in, in client needs. So, um, so just a lot of interesting, a lot of interesting topics that came out of there and interesting insights that came outta there as we think about the future of, of the wealth management business and how firms are, can use technology to excel.
Ryan Neal : (
Yeah. And I imagine, um, uh, a building on that, uh, with, with the ability to serve, more clients and serve, uh, uh, spend that geographic region, as you mentioned, serve clients from all over the place that part of the work that, uh, a company like fidelity and, and others in the market have do as well is, is make it more efficient to serve those more clients, right. If those advisors are bringing on more clients, and from more parts of the world, you've gotta work on, uh, you know, the account opening and workflows and reporting and, and all that other stuff has to be, uh, uh, more efficient and faster and, and more reliable, right.
Tricia Haskins: (
That's right. That's right. And creating those efficiencies, um, not only through, um, the core capabilities, but all through also through integrations. Um, and, and, you know, providing, for example, as I mentioned, you know, within integration exchange and seeing those third party providers a lot, not all integrations are exactly the same. So what you'll wanna do is understand to what extent are those third parties integrated? Um, and then also what is the impact of the workflow? So that combination of integration and workflow, as you exactly just said is critical to understanding, you know, what, that's gonna look like, how that's gonna impact your, uh, your, both your back office or home office, and then also the work that you do with, with your own clients as well.
Ryan Neal : (
Yeah, that makes sense. And you mentioned earlier, and I said, we're gonna come back to it and we're, we are now it's about that personalization. And that's the, the, the phrase I keep hearing from kind of everyone across the industry, uh, whether it's, you know, we see companies investing in, uh, direct indexing technology, uh, fractional shares and that kind of stuff to just user experience. Um, you know, it seems like it's personalization for both clients and advisors, like they're trying advisors wanna be served unique. That's I think some of the work you're doing with integration, but, uh, what, what could you say about that? I mean, what, where do you see personalization going and, and what sort of work are you, you and your team doing on that front?
Tricia Haskins: (
Yeah. Um, so personalization is something that we're really focused on as is not only the industry, but the broader marketplace. I mean, think about it just in your, everyday in, you know, your, the news feeds that you get to the product recommendations to the movie recommendations that you get you personalization is today is a part of everyday life. And so, um, you know, and it's really driving the innovation across in industries. So, you know, these, these different technologies being used, whether it's predictive analytics, um, natural language processing, um, you know, any number of different, um, um, uh, anomaly detection, things like that, really, it, it is in everybody's everyday lives. So, you know, how can we think about, and how can firms think about personalization? I think one of the things that you just brought up is, is really critical and key is it's personalization across many different what we call personas, right?
Tricia Haskins: (
So as you think about the design and you think about the user experience that you're trying to drive, um, how do you think about that persona and what is it that, what is the experience that you're trying to, um, provide to them? So for example, there may be for example, an, an investor persona, right? So what does your end client, um, what are their needs? And that personalization is actually getting, not only from the investment perspective, as you rightly said, but also from, um, sort of a behavioral finance perspective, right. So what are the things that this person cares about versus, uh, maybe another client that you have, um, then, so you have that investor persona, then you also have your advisor persona, right. So does that advisor focus on a specific persona themselves or a specific geographic region, or is there a specific way they like to work, um, thinking about developing and creating a, an experience for them that enables them to what we call at fidelity, move up the advice value stack, right into, from investing to planning, to helping their clients be free from worry to helping them achieve, um, their life's purpose.
Tricia Haskins: (
So you have the investor persona, you have the advisor persona, and then you have the, the home office or the back office persona. And you have a lot of people inside that home office who are supporting the efforts of the advisor and supporting those clients. And they can be client facing. They could be operationally focused, they could be, um, business and management. They could be trading and modeling and, and things like that. So what are those personas? So you can see how the sophistication of personalization is just expanding over time, as you think about all those different, um, personas. So, you know, the, the interesting thing is, as you think about, um, technology, you know, over the past 25 years, that that I've been, you know, in the business doing this, it really has moved, has shifted from let's understand what the features and functionality are out there, and how can we use it to let's understand what it is that we need and what experience we're driving, and then how do the componentry help drive that experience? So there's a lot in what I just said, and I, I certainly can, can go deeper on that. Um, but I wanted to just start with that, um, and then go from there.
Ryan Neal : (
Yeah. I mean, it sounds like it, it sounds like a, just a, a, a huge task, um, especially for a firm, like fidelity that I know serves so many different players in the market from independent RAs all the way up to, you know, institutional, uh, financial services firms. Um, so I guess, how does your team approach that when you, when you have in mind, like, okay, we have to build technology for so many different types of wealth management firms, and those firms are using the technology to serve so many different types of clients. Um, and, and everyone wants this kind, as you said, that kind of modern service, everyone wants it personalized to their, their taste. How do you do that? How does your team, and I know we have a lot of, um, tech people that are joining our, our call as well. And maybe how do, how do tech firms approach this situation? How do you solve that?
Tricia Haskins: (
Yeah, absolutely. So it's starting with the client first that is where we start with the client and understanding, getting a really deep understanding of, of their needs. And as I mentioned, or as you mentioned actually, was that those clients look, can look different, right? So understanding the needs of the unique firms and, and not only the firms, but also the personas, as I mentioned within those firms. So we always start there. We always start there. And then we, uh, we leverage our design resources, our UX resources, um, that, you know, you may be familiar with design thinking that came out of the Stanford D school. So we've done a lot of work with that, with that them and design thinking to a understand what are the needs and what are the underlying needs. So then you start with that, you go into, you know, what is the experience and what are the needs, what do we wanna create?
Tricia Haskins: (
And then how do we create the componentry to be able to execute on that? Now, the way we approach the technology that we provide to all these different firms is choice, right? So you have to provide choice to allow them to also determine what level of personalization they want. So for example, Wealthscape , uh, the, and all the componentries that go into there absolutely a design driven it's, it's a fantastic tool and set of tools that are constant being updated to help serve the needs of all of those personas within all the different firms. We also have the ability to integrate with third parties. So I talked about the FinTech marketplace. So you find, you have Wealthscape and then you have all the different, um, third parties out there that you may leverage within your firm. Understanding we provide integrations to over 200 of those, right?
Tricia Haskins: (
And you can see all of those within integration exchange. So then understanding what are the different components and what do I, how do I want to integrate? Great. And then third, if you wanna go totally custom, and this is where really the, the art of the possible comes in is we provide integrations and capabilities for these firms to leverage if they wanted to create a totally custom user experience. So, again, that's talking about APIs, that's talking about, um, transmissions, uh, framing in so many different opportunities and options to select through that, the tools that we have, the tools that you might want to integrate with the different third parties, and then that the customization just creates the ability for those firms to create that experience that is unique and tailored to them. Now there's a lot there, there's a lot there. So we also provide, uh, both, uh, thought leadership and insights through our, uh, practice management teams on how to get the most out of it. How to think about segmentation and, and how to think about integrations and technology selection. And we also have human resources there as well. So prior to this role, I actually headed the, um, the platform and technology consulting organization that would actually work with different firms to help get the most out of their technology. So, so there's a lot there, but there's also a lot of resources to help you get the most out of it.
Ryan Neal : (
Gotcha. It, it seems like almost a recognition that, and I think this is probably not even just in financial services, but across all sorts of technology that you don't have to build all of it, that you can build that, that fidelity and, and other firms out there are, are building that platform and letting others, uh, you know, kind of do what they do best, whether it's building financial planning or building a CRM or building, uh, rebalancing, uh, you know, and I know fidelity has some of those capabilities in house, but if advisors wanna kind of choose that other thing they can, which sort of brings up a, a, a, a question I wanted ask about was, um, you know, when we talk about this best in breed approach and, and letting firms pick and, you know, fidelity providing that integration infrastructure, mm-hmm , um, I know I see that strategy.
Ryan Neal : (
And I also see in the industry, in my reporting, others kind of doing, um, um, the other strategy of building in that all in one solution. I think I see a lot at the wirehouses, um, really investing a lot and building a, a kind of, sort of comprehensive technology package for advisors and say, here you go, here it is. And it's all super integrated. You don't get to really choose, uh, that best breed, but we got it all here. What do you think about those two different strategies? It seems like fidelity is going that, that best breed approach and letting advisors integrate, but, but what do you think about that? Why, why that strategy and maybe not the, that all in one solution?
Tricia Haskins: (
So, well, I think that what we, what we do at fidelity is we provide the optionality to integrate whether the firm goes, whether the advisor advisory firms goes with, you know, an all in one or best of breed, whichever they find is, is right for them, then we provide the integrations. So, but what I would say is this has been an evolution, I think, to your point was, you know, you know, when I first started in the industry, it was really sort of all, you know, best of breed, right? There was a lot of, of different solutions out there solving a lot of different problems. And then sort of the evolution started where, you know, there would be a solution that would provide multiple of the different components at the, at the time, the choice was best of breed for depth of functionality. And then you had to figure out how to integrate, um, all in one for the integration, but then you might give up some functionality, depth of functionality versus the best of breed.
Tricia Haskins: (
Now, as we've evolved now, to your point of, especially with acquisitions out there of some of these best in breed, historically best in breed providers, or what we thought of best in breed providers is, is that they're doing both, you get the depth of functionality and the integration is supported by that particular, um, by that particular firm, that technology provider. So what I would say is best in breed versus, um, versus all in one is a result of understanding what the user experience that you want to provide. So again, go back, start with the user experience across all of your personas, understand in depth what it is that you're looking to provide, then evaluate the tech technology and understand what is, what is going to help get me closest to that. And then you can also understand the gaps and where you might need to fill it in. So my commentary isn't necessarily one is better than the other. They're different. If you start with the, what is it that we're trying to provide? What is the experience, then it will help lead you to the, the right solution for you. And importantly, as I just mentioned, understanding where the gaps are, if there are any, then how can you fill those gaps with, you know, either additional integrations or some custom development or so on, so forth.
Ryan Neal : (
I see. So, so kind of just rather than, uh, forcing advisors to pick one or the other, how, how can you serve, you know, both sides, if a firm wants sort of that all in one solution, work with them, if they want to sort of customize and, and tweak and, and build their own sort of thing. And especially I think in the independent market serve them as well. Right?
Tricia Haskins: (
Yeah. And I would expand on that as well. So sometimes, you know, it's a combination of two. So when I talked about, we provide tools, we also provide integrations and we provide the ability to customize. A firm, may say, I'm gonna take your tools. I'm gonna use them, I'm gonna increase my adoption. And so and so forth. I'm also gonna combine them with some of these other third parties as well. And then they may take some of our custom to help enhance their end user experience. So oftentimes it is not a sort of a single lane that these firms are going in. They will take components of each of them again, to create that experience for their end customers, for the advisors and for the internal folks, um, to drive that great experience, because at the end of the day, that's what it's all about.
Ryan Neal : (
Fair enough. Yeah. Uh, I, I wanna ask mention again, um, there was some of the stuff that's coming out of, like the large institutional firms, again, the, the banks and the wirehouses it's to me, I guess, you know, if you disagree with this, please let me know, uh, what I've seen. It, it almost like for a while, the independent market really had a lot of exciting innovation and, and new companies and these tech serving them. And, and it seemed like for a while, maybe that the wire house segment was maybe lagging behind. They had a lot of legacy technology that they were, they were, they were using. And the last like year or two, it seems like it's almost, maybe kind of a shifting background, seems just a lot of like new kind of next generation releases coming out of like these largest firms. Um, so when, so with fidelity working with that independent market, um, what could you tell me about how you're, you're working with them to help them keep, you know, keep pace and, uh, at stay competitive, especially given, you know, those, those largest firms have so much resources they can deploy to toward technology that especially the independents might not have that, um, what is fidelity doing to sort of work with that independent market and help them, uh, uh, compete with those largest firms on the technology side anyway?
Ryan Neal : (
Yeah,
Tricia Haskins: (
Absolutely. And, and I think what the firms that work with us, our clients find is that there's a great benefit to working with fidelity that, and we are because we are so focused on innovation and we are so focused on, you know, understanding what the trends are. If you think about, um, the fidelity center for applied technology, for example, they're looking out, you know, 3, 5, 10 years to see what's coming, and then we can help leverage that insight to, uh, not only drive our solutions that we provide to advisors, but then also the help advisors as they think about how their firm is gonna evolve over the course of the coming years. So, um, having that, um, uh, relationship with our advisors has been tremendous or with our clients rather has been tremendous and they've seen, um, much benefit. So, but what I would say is, is that, um, with, within the, the, uh, Wealthscape, for example, we're coming out with, uh, the advisor analytics and the client analytics.
Tricia Haskins: (
So being able to look at your book and understand, for example, what are the trends on our assets? What are the trends on revenue? What are the trends on money movement? Um, thinking about segmenting clients, age, generation, you know, helping to, to provide the, the insights to create, uh, a really insightful segmentation model, which is critical to meeting the needs of the clients of today. Um, thinking about where are my outliers, where are my opportunities? Um, might there be something here that, uh, that I might have not seen, for example, a large, um, movement of, of capital or, or something to that effect. So folks advisors can understand, is there somebody that I should be, uh, more focused on? Is there a client that I should be paying more attention to? So lots of really exciting things coming out in the analytics space that I am really excited about because this is going to help advisors as they continue to evolve their practice and meet the needs of their, of their clients, I would say as well, um, tremendous benefit in the practice management and thought leadership that comes out as advisors are thinking about strategically the, the future of their firm and how to, how to, um, meet the needs of the next generation, uh, in an increasingly competitive market.
Tricia Haskins: (
Uh, how do I think about segmentation? How do I think about, uh, collaboration, uh, how do I implement some of those technologies, just tremendous, uh, insights there coming out of thought leadership and practice management. And then I would say also that the, um, the resources that we have from a consulting perspective that are out with our clients every day, uh, implementing some of these strategies and helping them and to understand, you know, how do I do, how do I evaluate these third parties? How do I get the most out of integrations? Uh, how do I streamline my workflows? How do I go paperless? All of these questions that advisors and firms are wrestling with on a daily basis. I think from, uh, an integration perspective, I am really excited about the future of integration exchange and, and where we are going. Uh, again, I just am talking to, this is the art of the possible, this is the place where you're gonna look at, um, you know, as a firm, you know, what are the third parties that, that I can integrate with that, that I use today, um, also insights into, uh, where is my data going?
Tricia Haskins: (
We know data security and data privacy is huge. That's in integration exchange, uh, understanding what are the different capabilities. And if I'm going to, if I wanna create a great onboarding experience, what are the APIs that I'm going to use to, to, to be able to execute on that? And all of the information is there for you, including samples of what it could look like, depending on how you design it. So, uh, so lots of opportunity and, and significant amount of resources out there that it just really makes for an exciting time for, uh, the advisor out there and the firm out there that wants to create a, an amazing end user experience for their clients, for their advisors and for their internal home office. So I, I'm just really excited about where we are today and where we're going.
Ryan Neal : (
I guess, you know, you, you, you mentioned all that, and it sounds like, you know, there's a lot of great resource out there that you can provide advisors a, um, that's solving a, a, a need it's solving a pain point for them to, to, to get all this technology working. I guess I'm wondering is, um, the, the fact that that pain point exists, does that kind of, does that mean the independent market is maybe at a bit of a disadvantage with, so the, like the larger firms can come in and say, here's your tech, there's what you're using, uh, go forth. Um, do they have a, is it easier for them? They don't have to kind of work through all these challenges or is there still an opportunity there for independence to, to use this, this choice to, to kind of agree, I guess, create something different.
Tricia Haskins: (
Yeah. The, the firms that we've seen, uh, that are most successful in, uh, implementing technology and really leveraging technology, see it as a strategic differentiator, right? Meaning that is a part of their sea level conversations. And how are we gonna use technology to empower all of the, the people in our firm? So what I would say to that is that you provided that the firms see it as a strategic differentiator, think about the options out there, think about the user experience and understand that choice is an opportunity that adoption is an opportunity that those are the folks who are going to be able to not only leverage this technology, but be empowered by it and deepen these relationships and deepen these integrations. Um, so I, I see it as the, the, that choice just creates the ability for you to deliver on your unique value proposition, that you can create an, an experience that you see as an ideal experience that is different than other firms out there that you might be competing with.
Tricia Haskins: (
So I actually see the choice as a differentiator, I would say too, though. And I think to your point that you certainly have to, uh, commit the time and, uh, you know, the firms that we have seen, as I mentioned, who are most successful in it, do. They commit the time, the insights they think about innovation, they think about their user experience. Um, you know, but they also are taking advantage of an opportunity out there, um, to differentiate and to expand their, their, um, their client, uh, base and, uh, and also go into the next generation, which is a significant opportunity as well.
Ryan Neal : (
Yeah. It's interesting to say I was at a, a conference last week and I got a call. Um, you know, it was a number I didn't recognize, I let it go to voicemail and it was, uh, my mom's financial advisor actually reaching out to me for the first time to say like, Hey, see if you wanna have a conversation about setting up an IRA. And I'm like, oh goodness, here, here it comes. Here, comes the next generation talk. Um, anyway, uh, I know there's lots more, we could talk about that. We're, we're running up on our time here. Yes. Um, you know, and, and
Tricia Haskins: (
Can I just say, sorry to interrupt. Yeah. Please do one thing. Yes. That we did see, uh, in the course of our study that I didn't mention, but this is a good time to mention it. Advisors who were using, uh, video conference technology throughout the course of the pandemic. They used it as the opportunity to get to know other family members. So that makes sense if somebody was, you know, say visiting the, their client or they live together, whatever the case may be, they actually used it as an opportunity to start the conversation earlier. So I thought that was pretty clever.
Ryan Neal : (
Yeah. That, I mean, that's a lot easier than a phone call. Right. You can just kind of bring someone on camera. Um, you know, right. Know, I mean, we're lucky. We, we usually get a guest appearance from my cat on a lot of these sessions we need, he's, he's sleeping right now, but anyway, um, I we're running outta time, but Trisha, I really wanna say thank you for joining me. Uh, uh, it's the first session and invest connect 2021. Um, and thank everyone else for, for tuning in wherever you are. Um, I really appreciate it and I hope your everyone is staying, uh, healthy and safe. And, uh, Trisha, thank you again. Any, uh, closing thoughts for us?
Tricia Haskins: (
I just wanna say thank you. I, I, I am just so, so thrilled to have this opportunity, so, um, thank you very much and I hope everybody enjoys, uh, invest connect. I know I will.
Ryan Neal : (
Great. Thanks again. And enjoy the rest of the sessions, everybody.