According to Cerulli, advisors spend more than 50% of their time on non-client facing activities like investment research, due diligence and monitoring, trading and rebalancing, and managing day-to-day operations. SigFig can greatly improve efficiency in the majority of these areas by incorporating automation and other tech-enabled functions into your firm’s new client onboarding and servicing processes.
How SigFig Helps Advisors Save Time
Onboarding can be particularly time-consuming with activities like meeting prep, account setup, and inputting data into forms. Advisors are often dealing with multiple systems that don’t talk to each other. The amount of time lost working across different systems can be staggering.
We estimate that SigFig’s technology can save over 30 minutes per account in onboarding and account opening by simplifying proposal development and investment selection and streamlining data low through a single platform, regardless of whether advice is delivered remotely or in person.
Our technology can also save an average of 20 minutes per account in annual maintenance by automating tasks like making deposits and withdrawals, tax and statement requests, account updates and automating annual review compliance requirements.
Based on this data, if an advisor services 300 accounts per year, that could save 100 hours of their time each year.
If we assume the average advisor and middle office cost is approx. $80 per hour, that would amount to $8,000 per year per advisor that is saved.
It also yields benefits in reducing frustration and complexity for advisors so that they can focus their energies into more productive client conversations.
How SigFig Helps Improve Margins
When comparing costs for client- and advisor-led digital solutions with traditional servicing models, digital solutions generally save firms between 20 to 60 bps.
The ongoing firm cost to support a client-led digital solution generally ranges between 13 to 19 bps while the ongoing cost to support an advisor-led digital solution ranges between 20 and 35 bps.
Perhaps even more importantly, digital solutions can provide a more consistent and streamlined experience for investors, helping them to feel more supported as they work toward their goals.
