Chartered planner Jason Butler takes stake in virtual advice firm
Chartered Financial Planner Jason Butler has revealed he has taken a stake in a technology consultancy that specialises in helping firms to deliver virtual face to face advice.
Mr Butler CFPTM, who founded Bloomsbury Wealth in 1998, has invested in Finsol Systems.
He believes more advisers should embrace video meetings as an alternative option to physical face-to-face client advice meetings. He warned they might risk losing market share if they fail to do so.
Mr Butler, who sold his stake in Bloomsbury Wealth 18 months ago, said advisers need to “evolve their advice service and how they interact with clients, to reflect clients’ communication expectations”.
He said: “Advice firms need to dictate what virtual meeting technology their staff may use and how they use it, just like they do with email. Not doing so risks delivering a fragmented, unintegrated and inconsistent client experience which puts the firm at risk.”
He cited research by Accenture, which he said found that 71% of consumers prefer dealing with humans over digital channels when seeking advice.
He said: “Video communications and digital screen based collaboration is quickly becoming mainstream, driven by wide spread use of powerful smart phones, tablets and laptops and greater access to high speed internet access.”
Finsol’s managing director, Tim Morgan, said: “Jason has a wealth of experience and knowledge of how to build, grow and manage a high-quality financial planning and advice business. His input will be invaluable in helping our customers to evolve their physical face to face advice into a high quality virtual face to face client experience.”