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Written by: Todd Shriber
In the financial advisory and wealth management industry, it’s either lead, follow, or get out of the way when it comes to embracing vital, disruptive technology. Knowing that, it’s critical registered investment advisors (RIAs) select the right partners for their technology journey. Enter Practifi.
Chicago-based Practifi is a pioneer in cutting-edge customer relationship management (CRM) software and capabilities that bolster practice efficiencies. As many RIAs already know, CRM products have been practice fixtures for years, but it’s also a concept in need of modernization. Practifi delivers on that needed refresh, so RIAs are properly equipped for wealth management in the 21st century.
“When it comes to CRM technology, everyone deserves an experience curated for their role,” according to Practifi. “Bespoke apps for advisor, client service, compliance, marketing and management teams cut down the noise and display the information, tasks and reports most relevant to each team.”
Technology can be complex and it’s usually not advisors’ core competency, but Practifi is rooted in a simple notion: A more efficient practice is often a more successful practice.
Power-up with Practifi Principles
Automation is increasingly a cornerstone of streamlined wealth management practices, but gone are the days when automation meant delegating tasks to a human that would perform those jobs on a computer and call it a day.
In other words, automation was rooted in simplicity. While that may sound like a positive, overly simplified CRM platforms may not be adequate to meet the demands of today’s wealth management firms, indicating some old guard products are outliving their usefulness. Practifi helps clients get on the right side of innovation and practice management.
“Within an automated process, you must be able to handle variation,” says Practifi President and Co-Founder Adrian Johnstone. “What if the client changes their mind? What if compliance needs to oversee something because an advisor is new? We address this by ensuring that within our product’s actions framework, advisors can branch processes and then create loops within a process to go back and do it again if you need to.”
Practifi also helps wealth managers address another marquee issue: Inefficiencies and lost time when onboarding new staff. Obviously, the aim of adding staff is to increase efficiencies and, hopefully, revenue, but there are pitfalls along the way. Despite what conventional wisdom says, those pitfalls are avoidable and Practifi helps advisors accomplish that goal.
“Good automation embeds excellence into what you do. Onboarding new team members to the firm can be inefficient,” adds Johnstone. “For example, someone has to sit and train them. Whereas if you've embedded all that knowledge into the product’s process engine and workflows, they simply just execute the task as it lands, with clear instruction for what they need to do embedded in the process itself. Embedding education in tasks cements or establishes knowledge, and ultimately goes on to build value and lower risk.”
What Clients Are Saying About Practifi
Companies are supposed to tout their products and services. It’d be cause for concern if they didn’t, but when it comes to products geared toward advisors, it matters what advisors say.
When it comes to Practifi, clients (advisors) are clearly enthusiastic, which explains the firm’s robust referral business.
“We hear back from advisors all the time that, by going through and automating their processes, their business now has more profitable client relationships. Because the advisor has been freed to focus on the thing they do best - working with clients - they deliver a better experience,” concludes Johnstone.