Advised and do-it-yourself wealth management websites and apps are increasingly intent on providing sleek interfaces, powerful portfolio analytics and artificial-intelligence powered assistants to help investors get more visibility into what is happening in their portfolios, J.D. Power reported Thursday.
The more technologically advanced and consistent those tools are, the higher that investors’ overall satisfaction is, according to the report.
“The continued growth of fintech players in the wealth management space has really raised the bar on investor expectations of a truly personalized digital experience,” Mike Foy, head of wealth intelligence at J.D. Power, said in a statement.
“As firms continue to incorporate more capabilities into their digital properties, it is critical that they also deliver a consistent cross-channel experience that connects with investors whether they are engaging via desktop, mobile app or speaking offline with an advisor or representative.”
J.D. Power evaluated customer satisfaction with the wealth management digital experience, inclusive of apps and websites, based on four factors: information, tools/capabilities, system performance and design. The report is based on responses to a survey fielded from June through August among 5,608 advised and DIY investors.
Key Findings
The top-performing brands in the study offer visually appealing, intuitive designs, easy navigation and information-rich content that is consistent across different digital channels.
AI-powered virtual assistants have become increasingly prevalent across both DIY and advised segments. At present, 60% of DIY apps and 54% of advised ones offer virtual assistants.
The average overall satisfaction among advised wealth management investors who use their firm’s virtual assistant app feature is 767 points (on a 1,000-point scale). This is 72 points higher than among investors whose firm’s app does not offer a virtual assistant.
In the DIY segment, overall satisfaction scores are 47 points higher, on average, when investors use virtual assistants than when no such service is offered.
Even the most sophisticated wealth management virtual assistants are still effective only for routine or reactive tasks; they do not proactively make suggestions or anticipate investor needs. Investors’ more advanced requests typically require escalation to a human agent or advisor.
“The importance of good design is hard to overstate when it comes to investor satisfaction with wealth management apps and websites,” Jon Sundberg, senior director of digital solutions at J.D. Power, said in the statement.
Sundberg noted that the firm is seeing the introduction of many new capabilities and many firms are getting traction with AI-powered virtual assistants, but that the key to investor engagement with these advances is intuitive, clean design and consistency across different communication channels.
Following are J.D. Power’s rankings of providers, based on overall customer satisfaction with the advised and DIY digital experience.
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