In this suite of blogs we’re covering our digital compliance and business development platform Model Office (MO)’s 5 keys that form the foundations for MO’s #RegTech platform and ensures any retail investment adviser (RIA)/planner firm remain compliant, client-centric and sustainable in their professional development journey.
Each key is structured with business functions that make up the key activities, strategy and focus for RIA’s to stay at the cutting edge of professional practice.
MO’s second key is Your Engagement: This key's business functions focus on the business brand, its marketing strategy, how well its client documents are structured and how it develops deep loyal and trusted relationships with clients and other stakeholders such as the regulator, all incorporating the FCA’s principles and risk based regulatory framework.
Your Engagement Business Functions:
Marketing tests for your marketing efforts ensuring you have a strategy and plan aligned to your client needs. It also checks how well you track your brands impact and measure the success of any marketing efforts whilst ensuring client informed consent. MO also scrutinises your website design and content ensure client value and regulatory compliance.
Client on-boarding Maps your on-boarding process against the Know Your Customer rules
Client communications covers how clearly you are disclosing your services and utilising digital tools such as social media and auto-marketing platforms. MO draws on the FCA's excellent 'Smarter Communications' paper in tested T&C's, presentation of charges, terminology used and much more. MiFID II's client communication recording requirements are also tested.
Survey planning focuses on how you are surveying on-going client needs and their experience with your services and aligning the feedback with the firm's on-going strategic development.
Client Documentation tests for your storage policies and their structure i.e. are they a compliance 'tick-box' exercise or do they incorporate marketing strategy to showcase the value of your services? Suitability reports are given special attention in testing for knowledge of COBS 9.4 and also if they are streamlined and offer executive summaries, headings and bullet points making their content easily digestible.
Digital Client Framework focuses on how you are engaging client online and offline needs, employing technology to enable easy access and understanding of your services and allowing clients to initiate, join, re-join, exit and comment on the experience.
Client segmentation ensures your firm's services are suitable for client on-going needs, how they approach the accumulation and de-accumulation investors needs and how well they are structured to cater for client behaviours such as propensity to purchase or sensitivities to your fees.
Professional Partners and Stakeholders is focused on those joint ventures with professional services and ensure the strategy meets regulatory needs along with client needs. For example is technology employed to engage accountants clients to help them understand ISA options or tax planning opportunities? The GDPR is obviously crucial here and MO tests that your client data is protected at all times.
MO's Your Engagement key encourages your firm to take a strategic approach to Marketing, Brand development, Your relationships with clients and key stakeholders.
Next week we cover Key 3: Your Promise.
Please click the below icon link to MO's platform and learn more about MO today..
