Bill Winterberg: The 2013 IA 25 Extended Profile

Asked to identify the main tech issues that advisors now face, he said their primary challenge is distinguishing themselves not only against other FAs but also against online financial advice platforms. “You’ve got to be different by focusing on the intangibles of advice, including the emotional factors, the behavioral factors and the aspects of planning that can’t be systematized or automated by a computer program.”

Further, he said, consumers are turning up the volume on their call for transparency, and online companies such as 401(k) research firm BrightScope are providing a window into that world along with information about how advisors get paid.

As for current trends he’s seeing, Winterberg pointed to the Securities and Exchange Commission’s recent decision to allow publicly traded firms to post announcements on social media such as Twitter, LinkedIn and public Facebook pages. He also sees big data making a greater impact on financial advice in the future, with advisors using marketing data about consumers to build portfolios based on demographics such as age and annual income.

Meanwhile, Winterberg said, advisors will do more to use social intelligence to influence their communication with clients. He named his tech-savvy friend and fellow financial-planning consultant (and fellow IA 25 honoree) Michael Kitces as a case in point.

“Michael and I are in a study group together and–I can brag a little bit here–I told him, ‘Michael, you’ve got to get on Twitter.’ I had 1,000 followers at the time, and he had zero. Now, he has more than 7,000 followers, and I’m just below 5,000.”

Winterberg named other trends and issues, from mobile push notifications to whether or not text messages can be used to make trade requests. They can’t – for now – which brings him to make one final point: Five years down the road, all the trends he sees now may have disappeared because tech changes so fast.