Account aggregation provider Quovo has introduced a new feature aimed at helping advisors get actionable insights out of their clients’ account data, especially held-away accounts. Cue is a new alerts engine designed to notify advisors about clients’ account activities, milestones or life events that may warrant a conversation.
“We call it Cue because it’s a tip-off or a hint that there’s something going on that’s worth a human conversation,” said Lowell Putnam, co-founder and CEO of Quovo. “And we expect advisors to pick up the phone or shoot an email and then continue the Cue process one-on-one with the client.”
Quovo currently aggregates data for millions of financial accounts, including managed internal accounts from large broker/dealers, custodied accounts from registered investment advisors, as well as accounts held away.
“Rather than just regurgitating back the data that we have access to from aggregation, we’ve taken it one step further, and we’ve built an alerting engine on top of all this account data,” Putnam said.
Previously, Quovo was performing an automated back-office process every night, running analytics to make sure they were processing the data and reconciling it correctly.
“We had this engine already built that would test or would query accounts, so we’ve reoriented those queries to be less data-quality-focused and more relationship-based,” Putnam added.
The first category of Cues include static alerts about information in accounts. For example, say the balance in someone’s account has jumped dramatically in cash value versus three or six months ago. “The advisor should make sure that it’s there for a reason, or it should be invested somewhere.”
The second category of Cues involves analytics and comparing data over time. This may include spending changes. If a client’s spending patterns are dramatically different from a year ago, the advisor may want to make sure they’re still on track for their goals.
The third category of Cues involves predictive analytics. For example, Putnam’s wife gave birth in the fall of 2016, and he started spending a lot more at baby supply stores, something indicative of a life event.
“No insurance agent ever called me,” he said. “And I actually have an advisor, and I told him that I was having a child. He didn’t reach out the other way around.”
“The Cue system can give ammunition to advisors on how to engage more deeply with their clients.”
Quovo is currently in the pilot phase with a few larger firms. But Putnam says the new system isn’t meant to replace the workflows of the most successful advisors, with the biggest books of business.
“Cues are a great tool for smaller advisors or newer advisors to help them build the skills and the instincts that more experienced and older advisors just sort of do naturally. We view this as a great way that as firms grow and as their advisors mature themselves and need to accommodate a larger number of clients, Cues will help them manage larger books and grow those books.”