Financial planners are fishing for new clients among Australians who have never sought advice before, but technology could help them reconnect with disengaged clients already in their practices.
“There are very few practices that don’t have a number of disengaged clients, they usually account for 10% of your client base,” financial adviser and AstuteWheel client engagement platform director Hans Egger told Financial Standard.
Egger noted that this type of clients tend to increase when practices buy books from other advice firms, but the Future of Financial Advice (FoFA) regulation is expected to threaten advisers’ relationship with their disengaged clients.
“Advisers will be sending disengaged clients a fee disclosure statement saying how much the client has paid on fees,” Egger said.
“If you are an adviser and you haven’t seen those clients in a few years, then you are going to receive calls cancelling those $500 dollars a year from disengaged clients.”
Astute Wheel director Michael Topper added that “one of the most difficult things for advice firms is finding new clients, but you can grow your business by reengaging some of your existing clients.”
“You need to give them a reason to come back to you,” Topper said while arguing that technology can be the key to attract disengaged clients.
Astute Wealth has developed a tool which allows advisers to send their clients an online “5 minute financial health check” and encourages them to visit the adviser.
The tool also includes a 4 minute presentation which explains the services that the adviser is providing, as well as real-time calculators on income, investment, debt, insurance and retirement.
Egger said he tested the method with his own practice and got a 10% response from disengaged clients. The service launched in June 2012 and currently serves 270 advisers across 90 practices belonging to 30 different dealer groups.
