FusionIQ is honored to have FIQ TAMP+ selected as a 2024 “Wealthies” finalist, WealthManagement.com’s 10th Annual Industry Awards celebrating the innovations making a real difference in the lives of financial advisors.
As a Wealthies finalist, FusionIQ was invited to share our insights into how wealth managers can grow and manage their business in the WealthManagement.com 2024 Midyear Outlook.
As financial advisors are looking for scalable solutions to drive organic growth in their practices, Fusion IQ Chief Investment Officer John Guthery and Head of Business Development Peter Brittain co-wrote a thought leadership article, How Cloud-native Wealth Management Platforms Can Help Advisors, Investors Navigate 2024 and Beyond, to assist advisors in better understanding how they can position their firms for growth leveraging cloud technology.
Advisors need to focus on three key themes as we navigate through the second half of 2024. Two are diversifying client accounts across their holistic portfolios and using alternative investments to drive positive investor outcomes. Both of these address continued interest rate volatility and elevating equity valuations/risk. The third is the rapid convergence of technological advances with advisor’s highly personalized wealth management practices. This theme is at the core of what is driving organic growth for the rest of this year and into 2025.
Well-designed hybrid digital advice platforms are positioned to support the evolution of advice. As we have seen with other key trends, these changes are happening now and not in the distant future. To manage interest rate volatility and potential equity market volatility, wealth management platforms must provide advisors the tools they need to seamlessly combine traditional equities and fixed-income portfolios with an array of non-correlated, alternative investments. This can range from private equity and debt funds, to managed futures and hedge funds, to registered real estate or credit opportunities. This group now also includes a growing list of cryptocurrency-related investments.
While the selection of the correct strategies is important, advisors must also focus on the seamless integration of alternative assets with traditional securities. Clients have grown to expect ease of use and painless integration in all aspects of their lives and investments should be no different. To achieve this, advisors need to be using platforms that are specifically designed to allow access to traditional investments and alternatives through an integrated experience.
Proper diversification and allocation of investors’ capital also require a holistic view of an investor’s financial positioning. The ability to view and manage assets sitting across multiple custodial platforms benefits the integrity and ultimately the outcomes of advice. Modern, cloud-native solutions make this possible. This is an evolution from the traditional platforms which are limited in their ability to deliver the modern experience and investment solutions that today’s investors have grown to expect.
To help investors navigate today’s market, advisors need to build on their bonds of trust. Without question, this still means old-fashioned relationship building via in-person meetings. This strategy, however, is no longer enough. Relationships with today’s clients require meeting investors where they are, on their mobile devices. Mobile engagement has become unavoidable – in late 2023, the J.D. Power 2023 U.S. Wealth Management Digital Experience Study showed that more clients are using wealth websites and apps, with higher satisfaction the more they log in. Yet, change appears unattainable for some of the largest old–line platforms.
Growing brand presence, through consistency of identity and personalization, is also a key to success in 2024. This supports the all-important sense of trust that is needed to help investors make the hard decisions that lead to great long-term results. Thoughtful tech-forward wealth management platforms not only improve operational efficiencies but also provide easy ways for advisors to grow their brand presence as they build their businesses.
