Client Needs Discovery: A Powerful Tool to Improve Your Results

Presentation: Client Needs Discovery: A Powerful Tool to Improve Your Results (PDF)

SEI’s Al Chiaradonna, Senior Vice President, Global Private Banking Strategy and Innovation, discusses the trends shaping the future of wealth management and how these trends reflect the emerging needs and desires of the new wealthy customer segment.

“Banks that can provide clients with the services they can’t find in the marketplace today will be well-positioned to take advantage of this significant opportunity,” said  Chiaradonna. “Currently, banks are losing some customers due to a lack of differentiation. Other clients are not moving because they don’t see an alternative that offers them the complete package - a single trusted advisor at one institution who enables them to use their wealth to reach their life goals.”

The presentation discusses the challenge bank wealth management organizations face in creating a scalable, consistent client process. Today’s model tends to focus on a handful of highly skilled relationship managers to engage clients in the relationship process. As the war for talent intensifies, this model becomes more risky.

During his presentation, Chiaradonna identified ways in which wealth managers will need to distinguish themselves in order to remain competitive in this marketplace:

• Orient the wealth management business model around the delivery of a differentiated client experience and relationship process, rather than people and products
• Achieve deeper, longer-lasting relationships with your clients by aligning solutions and services to their holistic needs
• Utilize tools and techniques that enable your relationship managers to quickly and thoroughly discover clients’ life goals, attitudes and concerns.

SEI believes that a process called Client Discovery is the first step toward banks and trust institutions transforming their client process in order to successfully meet the needs of the emerging wealthy.