How important is maintaining quality data?

investmentnews.com:

When it comes to integrating technology into your practice, have you found yourself being drawn to the latest and greatest offerings? If so, you may be overlooking a valuable aspect of technology already within your reach and one that doesn’t require immediate new investment: optimizing client data to uncover new opportunities.

Not surprisingly, advisors have a lot of data available to them within their CRM systems. Reviewing the CRM regularly is a great opportunity to enhance client outcomes and strengthen relationships.

Chad Druvenga, CEO of CBS Brokerage explains that while the industry conversation used to be around fee-compression, more recently advisors have been focused on offering ancillary services.

With advisors being asked to do more and more for their clients on top of building and maintaining relationships, expertise in data, Druvenga believes, is what allows them to communicate with their clients across a number of areas in addition to investments, like tax and estate planning.

“They don’t have to be an expert in each one but they have to be able to talk and collaborate with their client and effectively answer the call in each of these different areas,” he says.

Druvenga says that reviewing data can help advisors identify clients who benefit from expanded solutions, while an in-depth review is required for advisors to completely meet their fiduciary responsibilities. Essentially, the quality of data could determine the fate of a modern-day advisor.

“The pros of looking at this data [are about] ensuring two things: one is making sure that there’s nothing that’s getting in the way of the goals and objectives of the client and, two; making sure any existing policies meet the client’s objectives,” he says.

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