The Connected Investor/New Expectations for Finance

Over the past 30 years, tremendous wealth has been created in the United States as American workers have become savers, investors, and now, retirees. This growth has stemmed from a rapid proliferation of actively-managed mutual funds, supported by quarterly reporting to balance forward transaction platforms to ETFs traded in real-time.

Over the past 30 years, tremendous wealth has been created in the United States as American workers have become savers, investors, and now, retirees. This growth has stemmed from a rapid proliferation of actively-managed mutual funds, supported by quarterly reporting to balance forward transaction platforms to ETFs traded in real-time.

Thirty years ago, my main challenge in launching a new fund was getting it listed in the WSJ. Today, we operate in real-time customer experiences designed to delight and improve individual outcomes.

We have the smartphone platform to thank for our changing (higher) expectations for technology. The seamlessly integrated, elegant experience we enjoy on our mobile devices is what -consumers expect today in the personal financial world.  

So, what does the FinTech industry need to consider?

Investors have new expectations and a healthy skepticism: Trust is earned through experience and outcomes, not from the status of the brand. Non-stop connectivity to the world, people, information and applications empower our lifestyle and are constantly changing to meet our needs.To support more connected investors, financial services needs to adopt technology solutions that:

  1. Personalize services to provide immediate connectivity to the digital world.

  2. Give control with the power to research and validate, self-serve anywhere/anytime.

  3. Provide access to the person/advisor/AI agent that can solve any problem.

  4. Empower knowledge through the wisdom of crowds and comparisons with “people like me.”

  5. Create intimacy with quantitative, individual experiences that improve “my “situation.

At Vestigo, we see an exciting future of collisions lining up with this framework. We saw recent example of this at T3 where an Alexa application collided with xxxx to check financial health status of an investor.

We are still early on what Gartner refers to as the “peak of inflated expectations” curve; these collisions will continue to evolve.

But that does not mean versions 2.0 and 3.0 of this technology boon are far off. Big data and advanced analytics are on the cusp of transforming the WM industry with new ways to engage clients, and manage relationships and risks.

- Ian Sheridan