By Josh Book

In an effort to mitigate the competitive advantages associated with digital advisory services, traditional advisors are increasingly incorporating digital wealth management functionality into their offers. The move is as much a strategic play as it is about survival. Digital functionality facilitates client onboarding, enhances ongoing client management, and provides human advisors with cost-effective, automated portfolio options to better service smaller accounts.

Consumers with advisors more likely to consider using digital wealth services

New consumer research at Parameter Insights shows that the presence of a human advisor is associated with not only greater digital wealth brand awareness and usage, but also higher levels of digital wealth brand consideration and loyalty.

Among digital brand-aware consumers, we found over 40% of Americans and 19% of Canadians with a human financial advisor are considering becoming a client of a digital wealth service.

In the US, the difference in consideration between those with advisors and those without is 28.1% (40.3% vs. 12.2%). In Canada, consideration among those with advisors is only 10.9% higher among those with advisors (18.8% vs. 7.9%).

Greater satisfaction with digital wealth services when advisors are involved

Our consumer survey data indicates that digital advisory brands in Canada and the US are generally doing an excellent job delivering on all core dimensions of the digital wealth value proposition. We also find that the positive impact of human advisors extends from awareness to consideration and into brand loyalty. In both Canada and the US, having a human financial advisor is associated with higher net satisfaction.

The advisor’s impact on net satisfaction is especially striking in Canada where satisfaction with digital wealth brands is 44.5% higher among those with a human advisor than those without a human advisor.

The Advisor Effect

In conclusion, our research points to an “advisor effect” wherein digital wealth advisory services are more likely to be considered by consumers that already work with human financial advisors, compared to consumers who don’t. And these human-advised consumers also demonstrate higher overall satisfaction rates when using digital wealth offerings.

For more information about Parameter Insights research, click here.