6 Financial Advisor Tools You Need to Level Up Your Firm

Practice Management 5 min • 7 May 2024

With hundreds of options available for your advisory firm’s tech stack, it can be difficult to know exactly which wealth management tools are must-haves, which will give your firm that extra “edge,” and which cost more than their worth.

With data from our recent 2024 Growth Survey, we know that most advisors are ranking CRM, financial planning, and risk tolerance software highest on their priority list. But after you’ve ticked those three boxes, where should you look next?

Today, we’re exploring six key pieces of advisor technology that can help you bring new growth and efficiency to your firm, and how you can get started with each.

6 Financial Advisor Tools You Need to Level Up Your Firm in 2024 (and Beyond)

1. A Lead Generation Machine

Barron’s reports that “advisors spend anywhere from 7.5 to 9 hours a week on prospecting” – that’s nearly an entire day!

If you’re still focusing your prospecting efforts on cold-calling from a list, it might be time to embrace new tools that can automate the process.

Nitrogen offers a lead generation solution you can implement in your prospecting process. The Lead Gen Questionnaire captures attention with a powerful but simple question: “What’s your Risk Number?”

You can also use the questionnaire in your social media content, emails, newsletters, and other marketing materials – all with customizable branding that reflects your firm’s messaging and look. The key to the questionnaire’s success is that it’s interactive – you’re inviting the prospects into a conversation from the very first moment they arrive on your site, or even prior.

2. Risk Tolerance Software

Speaking of risk tolerance – let’s talk about risk tolerance software.

Gone are the days when vague terminology like “high-risk” or “moderate risk” sufficed. To accurately assess your clients’ and prospects’ risk tolerance, you need real insights based on accurate data.

With our proprietary Risk Number® technology, you can feel confident in how much risk clients want, have, and need, and ensure their portfolios are on track.

Nitrogen’s Risk Number delivers:

A common language both you and your clients can understand, using a scale of 1-99 based on a Nobel Prize-winning scientific framework.
Fewer opportunities for bias based on age, gender, or other factors (which aids in documenting compliance with best interest laws).
A proactive way to manage client expectations and pinpoint any portfolios in misalignment.
And more

3. Data-driven Engagement Insights

Next up on our list: client engagement tools.

Convincing a prospect to join your advisory firm is just the first step – now, you need to make sure they’re engaged in the financial planning process. With our Check-Ins, Stress Tests, and Scenarios tools, you can keep a pulse on clients that might need a little extra attention.

Check-Ins: Receive data points that uncover how your clients are feeling about their progress, and share adaptive analytics that show clients what’s really “normal” for them.

Stress Tests: Show clients how their portfolios would perform under historical events, like the 2008 Financial Crisis, to illustrate the importance of risk alignment.

Scenarios: Take stress tests to the next level with custom Scenarios, which can combine several historical contexts to create a comprehensive narrative.

4. Proposal and Report Generation

If you’re creating every proposal from scratch, it’s time to embrace a systematized process.

Nitrogen makes it easy to build out models and implement those across your firm. This gives your firm the ability to build the perfect proposal and portfolio for every client. When it’s time to generate a report, Reports Builder gives you the power to customize every element and highlight your clients’ unique investing story.

Reports Builder creates consistency across your firm, saves you time, and provides a more professional experience for your prospects and clients.

Clients aren’t interested in reading a 40-page report. That’s why our reports are built with the client in mind – so they can easily understand your value on page one.

The Proposals Dashboard in Command Center also allows you to track where each client is in their journey with you, including which prospects have received proposals, Risk Numbers, a Form CRS, and more.

5. A Filter-friendly and Searchable Fund Screening Tool

Looking to save time without sacrificing your quality of service? Consider adding a fund screening tool to your tech stack, like Nitrogen’s Discovery.

With Discovery, you can filter a million securities down to just the ones that fit your clients’ needs, based on their Risk Number, equity sectors, market cap size, annual dividend, and more. Curate lists and favorite funds you want to come back to later – no manual boolean searches necessary.

6. Firm-wide Growth Analytics

Without real data, you can’t really know if (or how) your firm is growing. Embrace analytics to keep a bird’s-eye view on your book of business and grow your AUM in a quantifiable way.

Command Center allow you to review portfolios quickly and efficiently. With this tech tool in your arsenal, you can say goodbye to manual spot checking and feel confident that your attention is focused on where it should be.

Wondering where your tech should grow next? With the above tools in your financial planning arsenal, your firm is poised to successfully tackle compliance, client care, and prospecting in 2024.

Enhancec your firm’s tech stack and streamline client engagement with Nitrogen. Click here to schedule a free demo and get started today.

Share This Story

Related Resources