After being rescheduled multiple times due to the coronavirus pandemic and border restrictions, Momentum Media delivered the Adviser Innovation Summit 2021 as a free one-day livestream conference broadcast nationwide on 9 November.
Channel 7 reporter and presenter Jessica Ridley was MC for the 2021 AI Summit
Hosted by Channel 7 reporter and presenter Jessica Ridley, the event provided an opportunity for advisers to hear from industry leaders about how they can accelerate performance in the financial advice sector, learn about innovation and technological trends in finance, and how to leverage these technological tools to attract new clients and retain existing ones.
It also delved into how advisers can understand changing customer expectations around advice and embrace new models of working.
The conference included 15 sessions, with multiple keynote sessions, live crosses, Q&A sessions, and fireside chats.
In one session, Stewart Bell, business coach, author, and founder of Audere Coaching & Consulting spoke about how advisers could expand their client base by attracting and nurturing self-directed clients and cater their services to this group in order for them to become users of advice.
He also underscored the importance of frequent communication between advisers and clients through various channels (other than face-to-face meetings and annual reviews) to increase their value proposition.
“There’s a lot of opportunity to forget what they're paying the annual fee for if that’s the main contact you’re having,” Mr Bell said.
“I think we also have to look outside and go, ‘what’s everybody else doing?’ Because generally most businesses now are communicating more frequently with their clients.”
The summit also heard from Tess Guthrie, CEO and founder of data analytics and consulting firm WhyHive, who provided insight into how advisers could harness data to drive innovation in their advice practices.
She said that to do this, advisers must think like a data scientist and gather information about their clients to gain a deeper understanding about their needs before providing recommendations.
“In understanding your customers, a really good thing to consider is just what you need to know about your clients or their customers in order to be able to provide recommendations,” Ms Guthrie told delegates.
“Then you can consider how to collect the right data to develop the right insights for them.”
Futurist Rocky Scopelliti said that when the advice industry uses and augments data, this will rapidly enhance the capability of the sector.
During a Q&A session, Mr Scopelliti said the next 30 years in particular will be data-driven and that financial services are no exception.
“You hear narratives that robo-advice is going to outdo the provision of financial services. I’m not a subscriber to that view,” Mr Scopelliti said.
“I actually think it’s how you augment data to deliver services that are much more precise [and] personalised [and] the way with which you can observe risk and personalised risk utilising data and all the amazing technologies. That’s what we’re going to see.”
Momentum Media thanks platinum partners Astute Wheel and DomaCom, gold partners Balmain, Cowell Clarke Commercial Lawyers, Halo, Implemented Portfolios, Integrated Portfolio Solutions, Midwinter, Praemium, Sharesight, and WealthO2, as well as association partner the Association of Independently Owned Financial Professionals for their invaluable support.