Practice Intel, a Boca Raton, Fla.-based growth platform, announced its official launch Tuesday.
Tom Rieman, founding partner and chief executive officer, said the company is focused on helping advisors align their practices with what their clients value most.
In addition to Rieman, the company’s leadership also includes Preston Cherry, Ph.D., co-founder and chief evangelist; Kathy Cottrell, Ph.D., co-founder and chief of staff; Larry Shumbres, president; Nicholas Gudz, chief growth officer; and Andrew J. Evans, chief experience officer.
Very few clients say their advisor provides an “ideal” advice experience, said Rieman, which includes delivering comprehensive advice, a deep understanding of the client, putting the client’s best interests first and being connected to the client’s life, among others, he said.
“These are evergreen metrics,” said Rieman. “They’re not seasonal.”
Practice Intel measures these qualities through a 14-question client survey centered on the experience and relationship between advisor and client.
“There’s a bunch of attrition risk baked into our industry,” he said. “You may think you’re doing a good job, and I may agree you’re doing a good job, but the question is: How do you know?”
Advisors have the ability to customize the messaging in the email that is sent to clients through the Practice Intel portal. The data comes back automatically and populates their dynamic dashboard.
After clients take the survey, Practice Intel’s process then uses that data to calculate a proprietary Relationship Quality Index (RQI), which combines multiple metrics to measure the quality of client relationships, said Rieman.
“The higher that RQI score, the more embedded growth you have in your practice,” he said. “The lower the score, the more embedded attrition risk and regulatory risk you have in your practice.”
The subscription model for Practice Intel is either $1,995 annually or $195 monthly.
Practice Intel enters a market already populated by competitors also seeking to give advisors a more accurate picture of their client's feelings and concerns. Absolute Engagement recently launched Engagement Engine, a digital dashboard that tucks a small number of client prompts and queries alongside the usual interactions—onboarding, scheduling meetings and delivering documents, for example. Absolute Engagement is just one of several companies digitizing the “softer side” of client sentiment and engagement, like Bento Engine, which automatically pings clients at preselected intervals tied to life events, and Hubly, which uses data in an advisor’s CRM to automate workflows based on the clients' situations.
Rieman said there are several key differentiators between Practice Intel and other competitors already in the market. This platform focuses on the core attributes that clients define as an "ideal advice experience," he said. Another differentiator for Practice Intel is what Rieman called “a measure, improve and measure” approach, which allows advisors to establish where they are, make adjustments and check back again.
Before starting Practice Intel, Rieman was previously the head of the Wealth Solutions Division at J.D. Power & Associates, executive director of practice management at Brinker Capital and vice president of learning and development at J.P. Morgan Asset Management.