A white-labelled service that allows advisers to deliver robo advice to their clients in under two hours has been launched by Wealth Wizards.
The software as a service paraplanner tools is designed to help advisers cut the cost of delivering advice, particularly for customers with lower levels of investible assets currently considered not profitable. The service is similar to the one being used by LV=, which has a 70 per cent stake in Wealth Wizards.
The service is designed to cut the amount of time needed to give fully compliant advice from around 10 to approaching 90 minutes. The proposition can be adapted to the adviser’s proposition, adapting to either whole of market or restricted panels. Wealth Wizards is paid a fee per piece of advice delivered, at a charge of ‘well under £500 but in the hundreds’, depending on the scale of the arrangement entered into. The complexities of configuring the system to an adviser’s proposition mean it is currently anticipated to only be available to larger firms at present.
Advisers complete a fact-find with clients, after which the paraplanner tool generates a regulated advice solution comprising single or blended products from across the market and an automated advice report in under a minute; as opposed to the typical industry standard preparation time of five to ten hours.
Designed as a white-label offering, the robo paraplanner tool combines human interaction with automation technologies to create a new option for advisory firms which will allow them to save time, reduce costs and conduct risk, and potentially service more clients. In an environment where clients are increasingly expecting online digital solutions and faster delivery on decisions, the tool will also deliver more choice for consumers and could enable firms to create more affordable mass-market solutions for clients in time.
The robo paraplanner has undergone a test period with partners LV=, which is now using the paraplanner as part of its telephone advice service. It says that so far, this has reduced the average time for advice to around 90 minutes.
LV= director of advice strategy David Stevens says: “The Financial Advice Market Review recognised that for everyone to benefit from pension freedoms advice, it has to be made more affordable and accessible, and we wholly agree. The paraplanner tool has delivered cost savings and efficiencies to our telephone advice business, already reducing the average time spent from fact-find to presenting advice to less than 90 minutes.
“Modernising the cost and consistency of advice through automation provides real opportunities for firms like LV= to offer the benefits of advice to more customers, including those with smaller pots. For example, in conjunction with our corporate partners it opens up new possibilities for LV= to develop high quality, lower cost advice solutions, for customers who need help accessing their workplace savings.”
Wealth Wizards chief executive Andrew Firth says: “New technologies are changing our industry rapidly, and sophisticated automated advice will underpin and enable advisory firms to grow. The paraplanner is not only designed to improve the performance of advisory firms, but to also support advisers in a market where 500,000 individuals are retiring every year creating huge advice opportunities. Through the use of advanced algorithmic innovation and expert financial planners, Wealth Wizards has created retirement advice for the masses, which has the potential to create huge shifts in both the cost dynamics of the industry and the volume of people receiving advice.”
