Tech takes centre stage at FPA Congress
Technology was a focus of the first day of the Financial Planning Association’s (FPA’s) Professionals Congress yesterday, with the organisation both releasing a fintech buyers guide and announcing a new app offering to match consumers with appropriate planners.
The Fintech Buyers Guide and Checklist was geared at helping planners assess their practices’ fintech needs, including a technology assessment checklist and tips for selecting the right technology partner to help improve financial advice delivery.
“We know business models from the past are not working efficiently in an environment of increasing costs, rising consumer expectations, and regulatory obligations; but it is equally clear that if technology investment doesn’t align with the financial planning process and business outcomes, it leads to inefficiency, duplication and additional cost,” FPA head of policy and standards, Benjamin Marshan, said, highlighting the need for fintech adoption.
“Technology must solve problems, not create more … Going through the checklist will help prevent wasting time and money on technology which won’t meet their needs, or those of their clients,” FPA chief executive, Dante De Gori, added.
The guide was a result of conversations with FPA members, consultants and fintech solution providers over the last year.
The FPA also announced its new online matching service, ‘Find a Planner’, which was slated for release early next year. The service would match consumers online with a financial planner based on a profile of money and life goals, rather than just location.
Consumers would be able to dictate how many planners matching their profile they’d like to contact them, while FPA members would be able to choose if their services are a good fit before responding to consumer match requests via an app.
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