{"id":4529,"date":"2020-01-21T16:15:00","date_gmt":"2020-01-21T16:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/emoneyadvisor.com\/blog\/the-value-of-a-robust-client-portal-in-financial-planning-relationships\/"},"modified":"2022-06-15T16:10:17","modified_gmt":"2022-06-15T16:10:17","slug":"the-value-of-a-robust-client-portal-in-financial-planning-relationships","status":"publish","type":"thought_leadership","link":"https:\/\/emoneyadvisor.com\/blog\/the-value-of-a-robust-client-portal-in-financial-planning-relationships\/","title":{"rendered":"The Value of a Robust Client Portal in Financial Planning Relationships"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n<p>Don&#8217;t you just love it when a plan comes together?<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>After you&#8217;ve synthesized all of your client&#8217;s financial information, goals, and constraints into a realistic financial plan? When they&#8217;ve signed off on it, and you can tell they&#8217;re invested on a deeply personal level in making it happen? And everyone&#8217;s pulling in the same direction?<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>There&#8217;s a great deal of orchestration required in getting a plan established to this degree and then keeping it on track. Obviously, part of the long-term success of a plan hinges on your client&#8217;s ability to fulfill their financial obligations\u2014whether that&#8217;s budgeting, saving, limiting withdrawals, or other commitments. It stands to reason, then, that these markers of planning success should be shared between your client and you in a dynamic way. This is where a client portal for financial advisors\u2014any online interface that enables clients and advisors to share information\u2014can serve as a bridge in the advisor-client relationship.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>The features and capabilities of different client portals vary widely\u2014some are basic tools, while others are highly customizable. A client portal&#8217;s features will help determine how effective it can be as an interface for collaboration, communication, and efficiency enhancement.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Client Portal Is a Window into Your Financial Planning Software<\/h3>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Advisors clearly already understand the utility of client portals. Financial Planning Magazine&#8217;s 2019 Tech Survey found that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.financial-planning.com\/list\/financial-advisors-top-technology-tools-financial-planning-tech-survey\">89 percent of surveyed advisors use a client portal<\/a>, making it the third most widely adopted advisor technology tool after financial planning software (96 percent) and CRM programs (95 percent), and\u00a0<em>ahead<\/em>\u00a0of portfolio management technology (83 percent).<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>It&#8217;s worth focusing for a moment on the fact that financial planning software is the most ubiquitous advisor technology tool. For planning-led relationships, a client portal needs to deliver on the purpose identified at the outset: as a shared interface for tracking plan progress\u00ad. In this sense, a client portal\u2014if integrated effectively\u2014serves as a window into the work you conduct with your financial planning software.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>With 89 percent of advisors already employing a client portal, the real question is whether your particular tool offers a utility-maximizing combination of features and flexibility. Let&#8217;s look at a few important features:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p><strong>Account Aggregation<\/strong>\u2014No one gets any joy from logging into multiple bank and brokerage account providers, and then manually calculating net balances, just to get a picture of their current financial state of affairs. Account aggregation lets clients connect and consolidate their account information for a comprehensive up-to-date look at their finances through the client portal.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p><strong>Goal Tracking\u00ad<\/strong>\u2014If account aggregation gives clients a look at their current financial picture, then goal tracking puts that picture into a longer-term context. Goal tracking is a configurable feature that advisors and clients can use to set and track progress toward multiple financial goals, and may have a budgeting aspect as well.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p><strong>Document Storage<\/strong>\u2014A single, secure storage and point of access to all of a client&#8217;s important financial, legal, and planning documents is a self-evidently useful feature. And while no one spends much time thinking about data security until a new major hack ends up in the headlines, it is an important point of concern for clients and prospects. Apparently, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fa-mag.com\/news\/hnw-investors-embrace-mobile-technology-but-lack-confidence-in-cybersecurity-51396.html\">only 7 percent of\u00a0high-net-worth\u00a0investors strongly believe that their financial information is safe online<\/a>, and affluent older investors are half as likely as their millennial counterparts to feel very confident in data security. Periodic testing, multi-factor authentication, and encryption can all increase the robustness of data security measures.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p><strong>Registration and Onboarding\u00ad<\/strong>\u2014The client portal can help automate the client onboarding process if it supports self-registration. This feature enables advisors to collect important introductory information and gives clients an opportunity to familiarize themselves with the interface in a time-efficient way.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Activate the Client Experience<\/h3>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>There&#8217;s a genuine sense of accomplishment that comes from seeing all of the effort you put into the client relationship come alive as the gears of their financial plan begin spinning. A truly useful client portal will provide the right interface to make sure clients can be fully engaged and active participants in the planning process.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>But as powerful as a client portal can be\u2014offering a real-time, comprehensive, personal financial picture\u2014clients need guidance about how to maximize the utility it can provide. That may need to unfold over time through multiple modes of education and training.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Once you&#8217;ve nailed down the basics, a client portal will help facilitate more productive dialogue with your clients and have a positive bearing on where you steer the planning process with your clients.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>To see how a powerful portal can transform your client relationships and keep you at the forefront of digital trends, check out the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/emoneyadvisor.com\/client-experience-client-portal\/\">cutting-edge eMoney client portal<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":4530,"template":"","thought_leadership_cat":[92,89,91],"class_list":["post-4529","thought_leadership","type-thought_leadership","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","thought_leadership_cat-client-experience","thought_leadership_cat-fintech","thought_leadership_cat-practice-management"],"acf":{"left_sidebar_ads":false,"right_sidebar_ads":false},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>How Financial Advisor Client Portals Build Better Planning Relationships<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Learn about the value of using a client portal for financial advisors and how important it is to keep your client&#039;s plan on track.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/emoneyadvisor.com\/blog\/the-value-of-a-robust-client-portal-in-financial-planning-relationships\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How Financial Advisor Client Portals Build Better Planning Relationships\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Learn about the value of using a client portal for financial advisors and how important it is to keep your client&#039;s plan on track.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/emoneyadvisor.com\/blog\/the-value-of-a-robust-client-portal-in-financial-planning-relationships\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"eMoney Advisor\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/eMoneyAdvisor\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-06-15T16:10:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/emoneyadvisor.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Video_chat_male_and_female-2.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"573\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"360\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@eMoneyAdvisor\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emoneyadvisor.com\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"eMoney Advisor\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/emoneyadvisor.com\/blog\/\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/emoney.advisor\/\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/emoney-advisor\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/eMoneyAdvisor\",\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/eMoneyAdvisor\/\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/eMoneyAdvisor\"],\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emoneyadvisor.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/emoneyadvisor.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/emoney-logo.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/emoneyadvisor.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/emoney-logo.jpg\",\"width\":2500,\"height\":808,\"caption\":\"eMoney Advisor\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emoneyadvisor.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emoneyadvisor.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/emoneyadvisor.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"eMoney Advisor\",\"description\":\"Heart of Advice Blog\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emoneyadvisor.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/emoneyadvisor.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emoneyadvisor.com\/blog\/the-value-of-a-robust-client-portal-in-financial-planning-relationships\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/emoneyadvisor.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Video_chat_male_and_female-2.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/emoneyadvisor.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Video_chat_male_and_female-2.jpg\",\"width\":573,\"height\":360},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emoneyadvisor.com\/blog\/the-value-of-a-robust-client-portal-in-financial-planning-relationships\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/emoneyadvisor.com\/blog\/the-value-of-a-robust-client-portal-in-financial-planning-relationships\/\",\"name\":\"How Financial Advisor Client Portals Build Better Planning Relationships\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emoneyadvisor.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emoneyadvisor.com\/blog\/the-value-of-a-robust-client-portal-in-financial-planning-relationships\/#primaryimage\"},\"datePublished\":\"2020-01-21T16:15:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-06-15T16:10:17+00:00\",\"description\":\"Learn about the value of using a client portal for financial advisors and how important it is to keep your client's plan on track.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emoneyadvisor.com\/blog\/the-value-of-a-robust-client-portal-in-financial-planning-relationships\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/emoneyadvisor.com\/blog\/the-value-of-a-robust-client-portal-in-financial-planning-relationships\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emoneyadvisor.com\/blog\/the-value-of-a-robust-client-portal-in-financial-planning-relationships\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Thought Leadership\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/emoneyadvisor.com\/blog\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Value of a Robust Client Portal in Financial Planning Relationships\"}]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"How Financial Advisor Client Portals Build Better Planning Relationships","description":"Learn about the value of using a client portal for financial advisors and how important it is to keep your client's plan on track.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/emoneyadvisor.com\/blog\/the-value-of-a-robust-client-portal-in-financial-planning-relationships\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"How Financial Advisor Client Portals Build Better Planning Relationships","og_description":"Learn about the value of using a client portal for financial advisors and how important it is to keep your client's plan on track.","og_url":"https:\/\/emoneyadvisor.com\/blog\/the-value-of-a-robust-client-portal-in-financial-planning-relationships\/","og_site_name":"eMoney Advisor","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/eMoneyAdvisor\/","article_modified_time":"2022-06-15T16:10:17+00:00","og_image":[{"width":573,"height":360,"url":"https:\/\/emoneyadvisor.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Video_chat_male_and_female-2.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_site":"@eMoneyAdvisor","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/emoneyadvisor.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"eMoney Advisor","url":"https:\/\/emoneyadvisor.com\/blog\/","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/emoney.advisor\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/emoney-advisor","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/eMoneyAdvisor","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/eMoneyAdvisor\/","https:\/\/twitter.com\/eMoneyAdvisor"],"logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/emoneyadvisor.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/emoneyadvisor.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/emoney-logo.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/emoneyadvisor.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/emoney-logo.jpg","width":2500,"height":808,"caption":"eMoney Advisor"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/emoneyadvisor.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/emoneyadvisor.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/emoneyadvisor.com\/blog\/","name":"eMoney Advisor","description":"Heart of Advice Blog","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/emoneyadvisor.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/emoneyadvisor.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/emoneyadvisor.com\/blog\/the-value-of-a-robust-client-portal-in-financial-planning-relationships\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/emoneyadvisor.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Video_chat_male_and_female-2.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/emoneyadvisor.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Video_chat_male_and_female-2.jpg","width":573,"height":360},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/emoneyadvisor.com\/blog\/the-value-of-a-robust-client-portal-in-financial-planning-relationships\/#webpage","url":"https:\/\/emoneyadvisor.com\/blog\/the-value-of-a-robust-client-portal-in-financial-planning-relationships\/","name":"How Financial Advisor Client Portals Build Better Planning Relationships","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/emoneyadvisor.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/emoneyadvisor.com\/blog\/the-value-of-a-robust-client-portal-in-financial-planning-relationships\/#primaryimage"},"datePublished":"2020-01-21T16:15:00+00:00","dateModified":"2022-06-15T16:10:17+00:00","description":"Learn about the value of using a client portal for financial advisors and how important it is to keep your client's plan on track.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/emoneyadvisor.com\/blog\/the-value-of-a-robust-client-portal-in-financial-planning-relationships\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/emoneyadvisor.com\/blog\/the-value-of-a-robust-client-portal-in-financial-planning-relationships\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/emoneyadvisor.com\/blog\/the-value-of-a-robust-client-portal-in-financial-planning-relationships\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Thought Leadership","item":"https:\/\/emoneyadvisor.com\/blog\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Value of a Robust Client Portal in Financial Planning Relationships"}]}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/emoneyadvisor.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/thought_leadership\/4529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/emoneyadvisor.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/thought_leadership"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/emoneyadvisor.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/thought_leadership"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emoneyadvisor.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emoneyadvisor.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/emoneyadvisor.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"thought_leadership_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emoneyadvisor.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/thought_leadership_cat?post=4529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}