Tech Review: Sammedia's Moneyinfo

AT8’s Mark Loosmore continues his practice management reviews. This week he takes a closer look at Sammedia’s client portal, Moneyinfo

A client portal is in effect a window on the back-office system, enabling the clients to access their data to view it and in some cases to amend it.

When executed well the client portal also becomes a central communication mechanism for the adviser and the client and becomes less of a window onto the IFA systems and more focal point for all the clients’ financial needs. It can be used as a messaging device, a document store, a means of updating client factfinds as well as enabling the client to keep an eye on their financial position.

To date not many practice management systems have executed this well. Those solutions that have come from an offline background have lacked the technology and the design usability to implement these solutions. 1st Exchange seem to be one of the first providers in this space to come up with a viable option. However, the solution is still unlikely to be available until next year.

Having operated an ‘online’ model since inception, True Potential has been able to offer a credible solution for some time. Their client portal is comprehensive and well designed and is also accessible via mobile devices such as the iPhone, Blackberry and Google Android devices.

A new challenge

The solutions from the back-office vendors are now facing a new challenge from companies like Sammedia which are addressing the communication with clients from a fresh perspective.

In creating its product, Moneyinfo, Sammedia has gone back to first principals and looked at what information consumers want to access. The information has to be sufficiently relevant to them to cause them to come back to the system on a weekly basis. If this test is failed, Sammedia feels it is doubtful that they will go to the site other than when directed to by the IFA.

To create relevance, Moneyinfo acts as an aggregator of financial account information from banks and credit card providers. It has the ability to access data from 8,000 accounts and provide both a summary view of these accounts and a transaction view, i.e. statements from each account.

In addition, Moneyinfo also links to most of the major wrap providers including Transact, Cofunds, Skandia, Fidelity and Parmenion for bulk contract enquiry information. Through this method it also gets the latest investment values should they exist on these platforms.

The final part of this data aggregation comes from integration with the back-office systems that the IFAs typically use. To date, this integration only occurs with Adviser Office from 1st Exchange but further integrations are planned. Adviser Office has more contract enquiry links than any other system and therefore can provide validated up-to-date portfolio information to add to the client’s financial picture.

As a result, the client gains a picture of their entire financial life in a clear, understandable format with the ability to drill down to a transactional level of data. Moneyinfo also categorises the transactions it identifies, including the transactions from the bank accounts. Initially this has a limited success rate – perhaps 40% – but each time a transaction that hasn’t been automatically categorised is assigned a transaction type, the system remembers this and it is not long before the entire income and expenditure of the client is broken down.

Having access to a breakdown of the clients’ information can turn the fact finding process of the adviser on its head. No longer does the adviser proactively have to go through a long fact finding interview to gain the information from the client but can instead access automatically gathered and categorised information saving time for both parties. This will not remove the need for a fact finding process, but it could simplify it and potentially improve its accuracy.

Security issues

This aggregation of information in the way Sammedia operate does raise security issues, particularly with reference to monitoring the bank account activity.

However, Moneyinfo’s bank aggregation is powered by a third party product known as Yodlee. Yodlee has invested heavily in security and has security accreditations and qualifications coming out of its ears with major US banks supporting its approach.  It is also very active in a number of industry security programmes.

Nevertheless any client is in effect signing over a right of attorney to Yodlee to get their financial data and the adviser’s clients need to be totally aware and comfortable with this situation.

Usability

Moneyinfo is elegant in its design and engaging to use.  It has an ‘Apple’ applications feel to it. Usability is high and graphics are dynamic and they use this dynamism to good effect to help explain links between data rather than it being used as a gimmick.

Intrigued by the potential Moneyinfo offer, AT8 spoke to a couple of IFAs that have recently decided to implement the system.

The first, David Hastings, decided to offer the solution across his entire client base although the motivation does vary according to the client segment. His high net worth clients will gain access to Moneyinfo as part of providing them with an enhanced service and so the solution can be cost justified on this basis.

The interesting motivation however comes from the solution he offers to his mass market clients. David has a real concern that these clients will not be able or willing to pay fees in the post RDR world and he is concerned that this will create a financial underclass.

Moneyinfo could enable these clients to stay in touch with their finances (potentially for a nominal fee) and then if and when they need advice the factfinding process will be dramatically shortened, thus enabling a lower fee to be charged.

The second IFA was Joint CEO of LIFT-Financial, Joel Adams. Joel’s vision was simple – he is looking for tools to provide added value to clients. He believes that Moneyinfo meets this objective by providing a single view of a client’s wealth in one spot.  Lift-Financial will link Moneyinfo to their back-office (Adviser Office) to access and monitor important client investments (which are in turn updated in Adviser Office via Contract Enquiry links).

It will then aggregate the information with bank data and provide an aggregated view of the client’s wealth.  Joel is convinced that this will not just provide a simpler and more complete view of the client’s wealth but will also improve the accuracy of information giving his team a real view of expenditure rather than the sometime haphazard guestimates that occur in the factfind process.

Conclusion

Moneyinfo is a new and differentiated approach to managing client communications.

As yet it is unproven and the appetite of end clients for adopting the technology is at the moment unknown.  However, we cannot help be impressed by the system and the vision that the Moneyinfo team has.

If Moneyinfo can be made to work it may solve several of the issues RDR is throwing at the industry and could be worth IFAs taking a more detailed look at its abilities and consider how it may fit with their business model.