Better Business  

The future of advice is hyper-personal

"So rather than logging in and looking at your figures, maybe writing it down in your spreadsheet to see what's up and what's down, instead you will press a button, and we'll present all of that to you."

Harrison says this could go into further detail for the investor. For example, the service might say 'you last logged in 30 days ago, let me tell you what's happened to your money in the last 30 days'. It will then give an overview and ask the client if they want more detailed info.

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True Potential is currently testing faces and their voices and wants to be most effective in its approach, without straying too far towards the tech side.

"Until you use it you don't know" says Harrison. "What we have to do is walk a really fine line between reminding clients we're still here but using technology to give clients an enhanced service at a time that suits them.

"It's also reminding clients with the messaging that our 600 staff are going nowhere. They're still here. This is just an enhancement. It's not an either or."

An industry in crisis

But why should all this matter? 

According to the Financial Conduct Authority, there are at least 4.5mn non-advised consumers in the UK at present with investable assets of £10,000 or more held mostly or entirely in cash.

Harrison believes about 12mn people are in need of advice but not getting it. Added to this the number of advisers is dwindling, as many are approaching their retirement but not near as many are entering the industry, as reported earlier this year by FT Adviser.

"We did some polling of our own recently, and so we estimate that there will be 40 per cent less advisers in the next five years in the UK, some of it because of age," he says.

Most clients don't need ongoing advice, says Harrison (Carmen Reichman/FTA)

"You've also got a bit of a shove from consumer duty and the winds of administration, regulation and probably just the burden full stop of doing business from there.

"That can potentially leave another 1.8mn clients orphaned at this stage, which is worth 256bn pounds of assets, particularly pensions."

He adds: "When we look at those clients that age is very similar to the financial advisers retiring. So as these financial advisers are going to drop away and retire you're gonna have clients who are also approaching their own retirement, which is in equal measures the most exciting time of their life but also one which can be the most vulnerable.

"Something has to change in the industry. We have to be wildly cognisant of the advice gap, we have to talk about it but you'd have to talk about the right solutions."

Harrison believes the industry has a duty to look after orphaned clients as well as the younger ones falling into the advice gap and says the savings and advice gap is not being tackled, not even by the FCA's latest proposals of simplified advice.