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Suitability – treading new paths in investment consulting sessions
The financial crisis shook the world of banking to its foundations. It also unsettled many customers and their confidence in banking institutions. Banks and savings banks have had their plate full simply trying to regain the trust of the general public and repair their dented image. Share investment advice has also come under scrutiny. It’s a tricky area, as clients’ interests are also subject to special protection under legal guidelines.
The term ‘suitability’ is used in investment consulting to describe the obligation of financial services providers to only recommend products that are suited to their customers. This applies to the whole consultation process. In concrete terms, this means drafting a risk profile for every customer, tailored to their specific requirements. This is then used to guide discussion in the following consultation process. Consultants are obliged to restrict their advice to investments that fit the client’s profile, and this has to be captured in the session’s minutes. Without IT support, this can be a long-winded and time-consuming process.
To ensure that the customer’s needs and investment goals remain the focus of discussion, financial institutions are turning to intelligent solutions. Using IT during consultation sessions makes it possible to lay down uniform, clearly understandable roadmaps based on legal guidelines. Automated processes provide the consultant with a template for advising the customer, without losing sight of the investment aims or risk profile. Simultaneously, this IT solution captures the minutes of the discussion, in keeping with suitability guidelines.
Technologies such as GFT’s a-touch support financial consultants in organising the consulting process and involving the customer more closely in decision-making. The system ensures that all mandatory procedures are followed, without missing anything out, in keeping with legal guidelines. It also makes it possible to provide multimedia explanations of investment strategies and financial products. The system guides the advisor through the entire consultation process, from drafting a risk profile to capturing the personal circumstances of the investor, and even suggesting specific courses of action and investment options. Clients have full control of their investment decisions and can regularly re-evaluate them by comparing targets with actuals.
Documenting all steps when investing in securities is equally important to the bank and the customer. On the one hand, clients can be sure that all decisions that were made took their personal level of risk into account. On the other, the financial institution can avoid liability risk. Using modern technology relieves consultants of the burden of bureaucracy, freeing them up to focus wholly on the customer. For investors, IT solutions make complex processes transparent, present abstract concepts in a more tangible manner, and ensure the advice they receive is of the very highest standard.
The term ‘suitability’ is used in investment consulting to describe the obligation of financial services providers to only recommend products that are suited to their customers. This applies to the whole consultation process. In concrete terms, this means drafting a risk profile for every customer, tailored to their specific requirements. This is then used to guide discussion in the following consultation process. Consultants are obliged to restrict their advice to investments that fit the client’s profile, and this has to be captured in the session’s minutes. Without IT support, this can be a long-winded and time-consuming process.
To ensure that the customer’s needs and investment goals remain the focus of discussion, financial institutions are turning to intelligent solutions. Using IT during consultation sessions makes it possible to lay down uniform, clearly understandable roadmaps based on legal guidelines. Automated processes provide the consultant with a template for advising the customer, without losing sight of the investment aims or risk profile. Simultaneously, this IT solution captures the minutes of the discussion, in keeping with suitability guidelines.
Technologies such as GFT’s a-touch support financial consultants in organising the consulting process and involving the customer more closely in decision-making. The system ensures that all mandatory procedures are followed, without missing anything out, in keeping with legal guidelines. It also makes it possible to provide multimedia explanations of investment strategies and financial products. The system guides the advisor through the entire consultation process, from drafting a risk profile to capturing the personal circumstances of the investor, and even suggesting specific courses of action and investment options. Clients have full control of their investment decisions and can regularly re-evaluate them by comparing targets with actuals.
Documenting all steps when investing in securities is equally important to the bank and the customer. On the one hand, clients can be sure that all decisions that were made took their personal level of risk into account. On the other, the financial institution can avoid liability risk. Using modern technology relieves consultants of the burden of bureaucracy, freeing them up to focus wholly on the customer. For investors, IT solutions make complex processes transparent, present abstract concepts in a more tangible manner, and ensure the advice they receive is of the very highest standard.
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