The Financial Advisor's Guide to Win Clients in Hours Instead Of Weeks

Client onboarding in financial services has traditionally been a slow, manual process. Advisors often deal with a mountain of paperwork and data entry while navigating compliance requirements like the SEC Marketing Rule. This regulation ensures that marketing materials are accurate and not misleading—a challenge when processes are manual and prone to errors.

For independent financial advisors, streamlining the sales and onboarding process with automation is crucial to compete in a fast-moving, budget-conscious environment. By leveraging digital tools, advisors can save time and money, win clients, and grow their book of business efficiently.

Challenges of Traditional Sales and Onboarding

Manual processes create significant bottlenecks. Advisors spend excessive time:

• Filling out forms
• Interpreting client financial statements
• Manual and/or siloed data analysis and proposal generation
• Ensuring compliance with regulations like the SEC Marketing Rule

These tasks increase the risk of human error and slow down the onboarding process, potentially leading to regulatory violations and frustrated clients.

The Automated Solution for Sales and Onboarding

Streamlining sales and onboarding with automation saves time and ensures compliance. For independent advisors, this means operating efficiently, staying competitive, and maintaining cost-effectiveness.

Investipal’s suite of tools simplifies key tasks, including:

• Risk Tolerance Questionnaire (RTQ): Automates risk profiling, storing client data to ensure compliance and inform portfolio management.
• Automated Brokerage Statement Parsing: Saves up to 95% of the time spent manually combing through client statements to key in tickers and corresponding values.
• Instant Comparative Portfolio Analysis: Powered by Investipal’s backtesting portfolio engine, it automates analysis of historical portfolio performance to help identify the optimal strategy for each client.
• Automated Investment Proposal Generation: Helps advisors create compliant, customized proposals that save time, win clients, and grow their business.

Laying the Foundation for Success in Client Sales and Onboarding

A successful sales and onboarding process begins with effective client data collection and managing expectations. Automation makes this process smoother for both advisors and clients, allowing you to focus on relationship-building.

Automating Client Data Collection with RTQ

Investipal’s Risk Tolerance Questionnaire (RTQ) automates the process of gathering key financial and personal data. This ensures consistency and compliance with regulatory requirements, while giving advisors insights to tailor their recommendations.

Setting Clear Expectations

It’s crucial to explain the sales and onboarding process upfront, including documentation, timelines, and compliance considerations. By setting clear expectations, advisors build trust and reduce the likelihood of delays or misunderstandings.

Building Trust and Rapport from the First Meeting

The initial client meeting is a critical opportunity to build trust and establish a solid foundation for your relationship.

Delivering More Value

Use active listening to understand your client's financial goals, risk tolerance, and preferences. Investipal’s RTQ provides structured data to support this conversation, enabling you to offer personalized advice from the outset.

Clear, Jargon-Free Communication

Avoid using financial jargon that could confuse clients. Explaining strategies in clear, simple terms builds confidence and ensures clients understand the recommendations being made.

Setting Efficient Timelines and Deliverables

Clients expect a smooth, efficient and professional process with quick turnaround times. Leveraging automation to streamline data entry, conduct analysis, come up with recommendations and deliver proposals allows you to deliver on that promise. It also enables you to tighten up your process and reduce the length of your sales cycle.

Delivering an Efficient Process

After the initial meeting, it’s time to deliver a smooth process that answers their questions and demonstrates value.

Automating Statement Parsing

With automated brokerage statement parsing, Investipal’s tool extracts critical data from client statements in seconds. This not only saves time but reduces the likelihood of errors when manually entering data. This allows you to quickly get to the analysis portion of your process.

Instant, Comprehensive Portfolio Analysis

With the client’s portfolio(s) in the system, you can now run the backtesting portfolio engine to generate a comprehensive analysis and run a direct comparison to your models. With their goals and risk tolerance previously identified, this allows you to quickly uncover hidden risks in their existing portfolio and select the right strategy.

Proposals and Compliance, Automated

Investipal’s automated investment proposal generation creates personalized, compliant proposals in just minutes. These proposals allow advisors to save time, win clients, and maintain compliance with the SEC Marketing Rule.

Leveraging Digital Sales and Onboarding Tools for Competitive Advantage

Digital tools transform the sales and onboarding process, helping advisors operate more efficiently and deliver a better client experience.

Key Benefits of Investipal’s Solutions

1. Risk Tolerance Questionnaire (RTQ): Standardizes the collection of risk data and helps ensure compliance.
2. Automated Brokerage Statement Parsing: Saves 95% of the time previously spent on manual data entry.
3. Instant Comparative Portfolio Analysis with Backtesting: Investipal’s backtesting portfolio engine enables advisors to analyze historical portfolio performance and make informed decisions faster.
4. Automated Investment Proposal Generation: Produces compliant, personalized proposals that help win clients and grow your book.

Save Time, Save Money, Win Clients

Streamlining sales and onboarding with automation allows advisors to save time and money, which can be reinvested into growing the business. For independent advisors, time saved through automation can accelerate client acquisition, letting you compete more effectively in the marketplace.

Ensuring Compliance at Every Step of Sales and Onboarding

Compliance is critical in financial advising, and automating sales and onboarding helps ensure it’s integrated from the start.

Protecting Client Data and Meeting Regulatory Standards

Investipal’s solutions offer secure data collection and storage, ensuring compliance with privacy and security regulations. Additionally, automated investment proposal generation ensures that advisors adhere to the SEC Marketing Rule and other relevant regulations.

Creating a Scalable, Repeatable Sales and Onboarding Process

By standardizing workflows, advisors can scale their sales and onboarding process without losing efficiency or personalization.

Automating and Standardizing for Growth

Investipal’s tools, such as automated data collection and portfolio analysis, allow advisors to streamline repetitive tasks while still providing a customized client experience. This scalability is especially important for independent advisors who need to maximize their resources to remain competitive.

Tailoring the Experience for Every Client

While automation brings consistency and efficiency, personalization remains key to winning client trust.

Balancing Efficiency with Personalization

Investipal’s RTQ and comparative portfolio analysis allow advisors to quickly gather client information, leaving more time to focus on tailoring recommendations to individual goals and preferences.

Common Sales and Onboarding Pitfalls to Avoid

Even with automation, it’s important to be aware of potential sales and onboarding pitfalls. Here’s how to overcome them:

1. Lack of Communication: Always set clear expectations with clients regarding timelines and steps.
2. Inaccurate Data: Use automated tools like RTQ and statement parsing to reduce human error.
3. Neglecting Compliance: Invest in tools like automated proposal generation to ensure your sales and onboarding process adheres to the latest regulations.
4. Inefficient Processes: Leverage Investipal’s streamlined workflow and backtesting portfolio engine to create a highly efficient and streamlined process.

The Future of Financial Advisor Sales and Onboarding: Digital, Efficient, and Compliant

As technology evolves, so will the sales and onboarding process. The key to staying competitive is embracing automation and using digital tools to enhance efficiency while meeting client expectations.

AI and Automation in the Future

Artificial intelligence and machine learning are poised to revolutionize how financial advisors onboard clients. From automated risk assessments to compliance tracking, tools like Investipal will help advisors streamline their operations further, while offering better service to clients. Book a demo today to learn more.