90% of Advisors Say They'd Ditch a Firm With Subpar Tech: Study

Nine in 10 advisors say they would change firms because of bad technology at their current firm, and 44% have already done so, Advisor360° reported Wednesday.

Sixty-five percent of advisors believe that their technology setup needs to be improved, citing bad data and lack of automation and artificial intelligence-enabled tools as the biggest problems.

The study is the latest edition of Advisor360's Connected Wealth Report series, which explores the views of financial advisors and how technology affects their work.

It is based on a survey conducted in September and October by Coleman Parkes Research among 300 wealth managers, 36.5 years old on average, who manage an average of $40 million in client assets.

"The advisors in our survey expressed candid concerns about their technology and the data driving it, making clear that both impact the growth of their practice and their overall satisfaction," Jeff Schwantz, chief revenue officer of Advisor360°, said in a statement. "If attracting and retaining advisors is a priority for enterprises, providing them an integrated, automated platform experience is essential."

Modern Technology's Advantages

Advisors are increasingly dissatisfied with the tools they have for working with clients and finding new ones, the survey found.

Ominously for tech-challenged firms, 93% of advisors who said they work with state-of-the art technology reported that they had gained new clients as a result of a competitor's bad technology.

Survey respondents also recognize technology's role in the client experience. Fifty-seven percent consider their end-client capabilities a weakness and said client onboarding is the highest priority area for improved efficiency.

Meeting Clients' Preferences

The survey found that advisors' flexible approach to technology stems from a desire to connect and communicate with clients of all ages where they are.

For example, 85% of participants said in-person meetings work best for older clients, while 61% said video conference calls are more effective than in-person meetings with younger ones.

All advisors in the survey said access to social media tools at work is a non-negotiable condition for remaining at their firm. They disagreed, however, about which applications are must-haves.

Six out of 10 said they want access to either LinkedIn or X/Twitter, while 56% considered Facebook important. Just 48% of respondents said they want work access to YouTube — in contrast to investors in an earlier survey, who gave YouTube top marks for advisor usage.

"The right technology choices, together with clean data, can unleash productivity like we've never seen before," Schwantz said. "As our research shows, technology can be expensive to purchase, deploy and adopt, but the cost of inertia is much higher when you consider the revenue impact of losing advisors."