Jane Hodges, the firm’s chief operating officer, said: “The world is changing. With better-informed customers and the use of the internet to fill knowledge gaps, the younger generations won’t be interested in face-to-face or long, boring processes, so the ability to get information quickly and transact quickly for basic needs will become a hygiene factor.
“I believe there are two main stages in a person’s life: the accumulation of wealth –savings – and protection of the ability to do so; and the decumulation of wealth, such as pensions and long-term care, and passing it to future generations – effective estate planning.
“I believe that the first stage is where digital solutions will be predominant and the second stage is where skilled financial advisers will be needed.”
For Mr Hall, advisory practices that turn their back on technology are likely to lack scalability, could struggle to compete against their more efficient rivals due to pricing pressures, and may fail to develop their business at a meaningful rate.
Ian McKenna, director of the Finance and Technology Research Centre, said: “Human involvement will continue to be an important element of financial advice but automated advice will be a solution for those who are not able to afford advice delivered face to face.”
He added: “Some advisers say that technological systems are not able to pick up on things like non-verbal cues, which play an important role in gauging a client’s attitude to certain things. However, technology is evolving.
“There is sophisticated artificial intelligence out there that can pick up on this. Granted, this technology will not be available to the mass market in the near future, but it is in development.”
Myron Jobson is a features writer at Financial Adviser
