We are a family office thinking about adding new services to strengthen our client relationships – any advice?
It’s smart to think about evolving services to retain and build relationships with clients, especially as the next generation takes center stage.
Expanding your offerings to include bill payment services, comprehensive and on-demand reporting, add value and convenience, strengthening client relationships.
These services can set your family office apart.
Beyond adding new services, consider reviewing your communication platform. Younger clients, especially Millennials and Gen Z, prefer seamless, on-demand interactions. Implementing communication platforms that support text messaging, mobile apps, email, and video calls can improve overall client satisfaction. These platforms can enable quick approvals and decisions, catering to clients' on-the-go lifestyles.
My firm is expanding from working with affluent families to offering services for High-Net-Worth (HNW) clients. With HNW individuals more likely to be targeted by cyber criminals, what should we consider to keep our clients’ sensitive information safe?
Given the sensitive nature of the information family offices handle, robust cybersecurity measures are essential.
First, we recommend that you partner with specialized technology providers whose security practices are built with HNW clients in mind. Implementing strong authentication, encryption, and continuous monitoring protects client data and prevents breaches. Partnering with technology providers that specialize in the wealth management industry ensures you have access to the latest security protocols.
Choosing technology with strong authentication, and encryption built in can play a key role in protecting families with safeguards around the privacy of information. For example, as an RBC company, AgilLink is held to bank level security protocols and safeguards. Since this level of security is rarely available in retail products, this is another reason firms should explore platforms that are purpose built for the HNW wealth management industry.
It’s also essential to have a clear incident response plan in place that can mitigate the impact of any security breaches. This plan should include immediate containment, investigation, and remediation steps, as well as communication strategies to inform and reassure clients.
How can technology help optimize our team’s productivity?
Once your office’s processes are standardized, automation can significantly reduce time spent on repetitive tasks such as data entry, bill payments, and report generation. Family offices can free up valuable time for more strategic activities like client interactions.
Purpose-built platforms enable efficiency, scale, and an improved client experience. These platforms handle complex accounting, reporting, bill pay and investment management needs in an integrated system where data never has to be rekeyed, pulling reports becomes easier, and getting answers to client questions takes a fraction of the time. Solutions like AgilLink offer an integrated platform that simplifies multi-entity accounting and bill pay, resulting in improved client service, and better decision-making.
My family office team is hesitant to implement new technology, what suggestions do you have for a smooth transition?
The goal is to get buy-in from the employees who will be using the solution. You want them to feel comfortable giving input about how the new technology works, and how to make improvements.
To ease this transition, focus on reassuring your employees, being transparent, and involving them deeply in the process by communicating often about what you are trying to achieve. For successful adoption, start with top-down communication, explaining why the new technology is necessary, who will be involved in the deployment, and, most importantly, the impact the new solution is projected to have on the organization. Leadership should ensure that everyone on their team understands what’s coming next before it gets there. Don’t discount the operational model. Technology is great, but to be successful there must be a clearly communicated and understood operations plan.
Meetings should anticipate the following questions:
- Does your team understand the technology’s value to the overall workflow?
- Will their jobs change? If so, how?
- What are their new responsibilities, if any?
- How soon can they expect to see results?
What are the cons of using manual wire transfers when paying bills for clients?
Manual wire transfers create opportunities for attackers to intercept communications and manipulate payment instructions. Once the wire goes through it’s almost impossible to resolve, because the money becomes untraceable.
Phishing Attacks:
Wire fraud typically happens in two different forms that are often associated with phishing emails. The first is when a scammer impersonates a client or another employee and asks them to conduct a financial transaction for them. They may send an email to a colleague asking them to make a payment on a client’s behalf. The second common scam is when a hacker intercepts a legitimate wire transfer and asks you to change the wire instructions at the last minute.
Scammers that are posing as colleagues, trusted advisors, or clients are trying to get your clients’ confidential account information and exploit it or convince you to wire funds to them.
Invoice Fraud:
Hackers can exploit the manual nature of wire transfers by tampering with invoices or creating fake ones. Family offices relying on manual processes may inadvertently pay fraudulent invoices, resulting in significant financial damages and loss of trust.
Social Engineering:
Family office staff, especially when under time constraints, may fall victim to social engineering tactics, leading to unauthorized transfers. Social engineering is a psychological manipulation technique used by scammers to deceive individuals into divulging confidential information, performing actions, or making decisions that are not in their clients’ best interest. This method exploits human psychology rather than relying on technical vulnerabilities.
What should I look for in a bill pay system to help prevent fraud?
One of the best ways to minimize all the risks associated with manual wire transfers is to use a bill pay system that has built in controls to prevent and detect fraud.
Enhanced Security:
Look for a system that has bank level security protocols and safeguards. These enhanced security features, such as two-factor authentication, payee positive pay (to defend against check fraud), help protect against the risk of identity theft, fraud, and other types of cybercrime.
Audit Trails:
A system with detailed audit trails that offer full transparency for every transaction will help keep your clients’ information safe. This feature is invaluable for identifying and addressing any irregularities.
Streamlined Processes:
A system that streamlines the bill payment process reduces the likelihood of human error. This efficiency not only saves time, it but also minimizes the chances of falling victim to social engineering tactics.
Real-Time Monitoring:
Real-time monitoring of transactions enables family offices to detect and respond to any suspicious activity promptly. Having real-time visibility allows for daily bank reconciliation, which enables the family office to quickly detect unauthorized transactions.
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