According to CNBC, Wells Fargo is launching a new platform to increase digital engagement with its 2.6 million financial management clients.
According to Michael Liersch, head of advise and planning at the bank’s wealth business, the tool, named LifeSync, enables customers to set and monitor progress toward financial goals, absorb content related to their plans, and get in touch with their advisors. It will be delivered through a mobile app update in late March, he said.
“These are the things that will really enhance the client-advisor experience, and they’re not available on the mobile app today,” Liersch said. “This is a really big platform enhancement for clients and advisors to collaborate around their goals and connect what clients want to accomplish with what our advisors are doing.”
With so many banks competing to offer their customers individualized experiences through digital channels, Wells Fargo should be able to increase customer happiness and loyalty with the help of this technology. In his efforts to restructure the bank and please authorities, CEO Charlie Scharf has emphasized wealth management as a potential source of development for the business, along with credit cards and investment banking.
This is a really big platform enhancement for clients and advisors to collaborate around their goals and connect what clients want to accomplish with what our advisors are doing.
Michael Liersch
Wells Fargo is a major player in American wealth management, with $1.9 trillion in client assets and 12,027 financial advisors as of December.
But its client assets haven’t grown since the end of 2019, when they also stood at $1.9 trillion. Under Scharf’s streamlining efforts, Wells Fargo sold its asset management business and dropped international wealth clients in 2021.
The trajectory of the asset figure “primarily is a reflection of the volatility seen over the last few years,” according to a bank spokesperson.
Due to acquisitions, organic growth, and new technology, its rivals sometimes referred to as wirehouses grew rapidly during that time. Morgan Stanley saw client assets surge from $2.7 trillion to $4.2 trillion. Bank of America saw balances in its wealth division climb from about $3 trillion to $3.4 trillion.
With its new offering, Wells Fargo hopes to turn the tide. The bank may eventually opt to offer a financial planning tool to its broader banking population, said Liersch. That would come after the decision taken by Bank of America in 2019, when it released the Life Plan digital planning tool.
“We wanted to solve for that more complex experience first, and then develop the client-directed capability which is absolutely in our consideration set,” Liersch said.
