As part of the day, a select number of Verve subject matter experts hosted a panel session which sparked some thought-provoking discussions, with audience members (comprising of back-office operational roles) posing real-world insightful questions that truly got us talking.

The panel was chaired by Jo Campbell (Chief Operations Officer) and she was joined by Grant Callaghan (Financial Planning Specialist), Maddie Delboy (Compliance Manager) and Paul Sylvester-Evans (Training Manager). Here, we asked Grant for his reflections and standout questions submitted by the audience and raised during the session.

‍“How do you keep abreast of regulatory changes?”

We have a few go-to’s here. Platforms and product providers are good at putting out regular and detailed content to help, and you do not need to have a relationship with these firms to access it. Professional bodies such as the PFS are constantly putting out content or hosting CPD days which can be a great source.  

If you are feeling brave enough, you can also subscribe to certain HMRC topic newsletters which will give you notification of changes as they are consulted on, deliberated and ultimately implemented.  

‍“What’s the biggest efficiency gaps you see?”

There is a still a gap in the use of relatively basic technology, believe it or not. A lot of processes still involve manual keying into spreadsheets, documents or systems, and there is still use of hand-writing.

Some of this is externally driven (the demand for wet signatures on application forms for example) but some of this is engrained internally or cultural legacy, such as managing data across platforms and systems.  

We see a lot of clients working with our Dextera system effectively to overcome a good chunk of these inefficiencies.  

“I'm at a firm where we recognise our processes are outdated and inefficient, but we can't agree on how to fix them. What do you recommend?”

This is huge and as reflected in the question not something that is easy to approach – there's certainly no magic remedy. We would suggest breaking up processes into separate areas (such as back-office management, client communications, internal research processes) as a starting point.

You will notice that some have co-dependencies with others and you will need to use this to prioritise each process, so starting with the area not (or least) affected by other processes. As you move onto the next process you will be able to structure this to suit the newer other process you have just implemented.  

In terms of how to fix these, you will probably want to start with what you want each process to achieve and work back from there, looking at pain points and what does currently work.  

“Where do you think the future of suitability is? How do we prepare letters that are fit for purpose in a consumer duty world”

The original ‘reason why letters’, or ‘suitability letters’, are based on the idea of an actual physical letter. As things have become more digital, more options have opened up in terms of presentation.

We see firms creating presentation-looking reports and making use of the fact printing is not always needed in a world with online portals and email distribution. We would expect more colours, visuals and graphics to help firms:

• Give the client something better to look at and, for the consumer understanding aspect, something easier to digest and understand.

• Showcase their brand.  

• Allow them to show more than they could with just written text in a letter.

We may see more of a shift away from the letter format to multi-media, as in embedded videos and presentations that is made available to clients purely digitally (where appropriate).

“What’s your one piece of advice you’d give to someone entering the industry?”

Come into it expecting to help direct change. You aren’t entering an industry that is set in stone and, even ignoring the AI aspect (which shouldn’t be ignored!), you are part of an industry that has changed in the lot in the last few years and will change more going forward.

Even if you are not directing or facilitating change, you should be ready to embrace change when it happens. Those that resist will run the risk of falling behind what the rest of the industry are doing.

“I’m seeing a lot of coaching. How can we ensure that this is compliant. What level of crossover should there be?’

From the compliance perspective, you need to keep in mind that coaching involves no specific products and no specific planning recommendation. A lot of advisers use elements of coaching already and anyone interested in doing this as a carved out service should make sure the products sit to the side.

Coaching looks at psychology, behaviour and general education. We know of coaching to be a prelude to advice. A coaching relationship while a young client is accumulating is used until the client is financially ready for advice.

The only elements of crossover as far as we are concerned is in the psychology, behaviour and general education part, which we know advisers may cover when providing advice.

We loved seeing such high engagement from the room and hearing the challenges and ideas shaping our industry right now. From regulation to technology, process to people, the conversation reminded us just how much transformation is already underway, and how much opportunity lies ahead.

If these questions resonated with you, let’s keep the conversation going. And if you were there in person, thank you for helping make the session what it was. If you have any further questions for the team, you can get in touch at hello@weareverve.co.uk.

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