WA MAGAZINE JanFeb PDF A - Flipbook - Page 9
TANGIBLE RESULTS
401(k) Coaches
Move the Needle
RISE OF THE ROBOTS
AI No Novelty for Most Advisors
S
ometimes the hype is real. An
overwhelming majority of financial services firms say the right AI
strategy is “critical” to both the industry’s
future and their own competitive posture.
Unfortunately, only one in three
of them have a clear AI governance
program in place, says Smarsh, which
calls itself a “communications data and
intelligence” company.
Putting two and two together, the
math suggests that about half the
industry is fighting the temptation to
make it up as they go to prevent getting
left behind.
On one side of the dilemma, nobody
wants to miss the boom or let rivals get
the upper hand. But with global regulators making it up as they go, compliance
is a moving target, especially if you
work with colleagues overseas.
Ironically, two out of three companies are hoping to deploy AI in their
compliance operations this year. Maybe
the robots will manage to police each
other and keep the rest of us safe from
unintentional leaks or lapses.
BACK CHANNEL
S
marsh also discovered that two
out of three financial firms have
opened up to text messaging but
few (16%) allow the hugely popular
WhatsApp platform at the office, and
that number is declining.
But veterans of the BlackBerry
days know how hard it’s gotten
to police communications when
personal devices plug into corporate
channels. If clients approach you on
an unsupported app, you know what
to do: point them to something the
compliance team can see.
O
ur world revolves around the
value of professional advice.
With that in mind, it’s nice to
see that workplace retirement programs
do better when they make the extra
effort to engage a consultant.
Retirement platform Pontera paid to
poll over 2,000 plan participants and discovered that those with an advisor find a
way to boost contributions by 5 percentage points over those who go it alone.
And they score a lot higher on key
knowledge points too, which is nice to
be able to show the sponsors who wonder about the value you add.
The call to action here is simple: If
you market yourself as an educator, you
can poll your people too and measure
what they learn. Then show potential
partners the results.
What Plan Participants Want
74%
59%
50%
Professional help
with their account
Clarity on their
401(k) choices
Plan options
explained
YES
THEWEALTHADVISOR.COM
NO
JAN/FEB 2025 | 9
