Understanding clients better
McInally believed client segmentation could help advisers to understand their clients better and to think about whether the client propositions they have within their firms are suitable for the clients they have in their banks.
She said: “Clients need advice more than ever, but also, they're starting to look at the value that they're getting from that advice. So segmenting client banks will absolutely help advisers understand their client bank better.
“What it will also do for most advisers, is give them confidence that actually, they're providing that good service for the client.
"But also it may give them a reason to take a step back, and look at their target clients and see that actually the propositions that they’re putting in place maybe aren't quite suitable, and one of the biggest areas for this is vulnerable clients. It's certainly an area where I see a lot of advisers looking for more help.”
By using guide’s such as the one launched by M&G Wealth it may help advisers to identify vulnerable clients more and ensure they do have the correct processes in place to deal with this cohort of customers.
“It comes back to having a robot repeatable process. Just having something written down as to how they deal with vulnerable clients will benefit advisers because that is possibly the FCA's next step, looking at how advisers deal with vulnerability,” she added.
Marketing of firms
McInally said it was “refreshing” to see some of the work that firms have done on consumer duty and then using that work to market themselves to consumers differently.
“Some firms that we spoke to found that they've got a new cohort of clients that have now been attracted to the firm because of things to do with updating their website and putting the services that they provide, and the type of clients that they deliver advice for.
“One of the really simple ways of doing this was including Google reviews or Trustpilot reviews on their website. So client segmentation gives advisers a chance to market themselves differently, maybe if they've got a little bit of a niche based on the type of clients they have.”
McInally highlighted that regardless of what stage in their career an adviser was, whether they were planning to retire and wanted an exit strategy or if they are a young adviser and plan to buy a client bank, all advisers need to make sure they have done client segmentation.
“If you have all your ducks lined in a row, then it makes your business more marketable,” she added.
alina.khan@ft.com
