The company hopes technology can help
advisers overcome compliance hurdles
Jan
24, 2019 @ 2:45 pm
By Ryan W. Neal
Instagram is one of most popular
social media networks among young people, but it isn't yet a part of most
financial advisers' media toolkits.
To help out, Hearsay Systems is
adding Instagram to Hearsay Social, a social media platform for financial
advisers.
Donna Prlich, Hearsay Systems' chief business officer,
said Instagram can help financial advisers connect and build relationships with
younger investors. About 70% of Instagram's 1 billion users are under 35 years
old, a demographic still evading many financial advisers.
"Advisers and agents have to connect with clients and
prospects on their preferred network or channel, which for millennials and Gen
X means being on Instagram," Ms. Prlich said in a statement. "With
the rise of the FIRE movement — Financial Independence, Retire Early — it's
easy to see that the next generation is eager to learn about concepts like
fiscal responsibility, investments, and savings — and they would rather take
this leap with a live person than a robo-adviser."
But how exactly would financial advisers use an app most
popular for sharing selfies, jokes or pictures of food?
Ms. Prlich said advisers can use Instagram as an
opportunity to be inspirational and show millennials what they can accomplish
through positive financial habits.
Priya Malani, a partner at Stash
Wealth, said Instagram has "certainly" been a part of
brand awareness efforts for her advice firm focused on HENRY (high earners, not
rich yet) investors.
"We don't use social media on a regular basis to sell
any product or service," Ms. Malani said. "Instead we use it to
deliver the brand's mission, identity, values and non-specific advice."
But for many advisers, compliance remains a factor
preventing them from diving into the platform. As an app built for sharing
photos, it can be harder to capture and archive content than text-based posts
on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.
On Twitter,
Matthew Ricks, an adviser with Ameriprise Financial Services, named
compliance concerns as a reason he doesn't use Instagram for business. He added
that he's "personally unsure how to best translate topics to
pictures."
"It could be great to show more personal touches and
build bonds with clients [or] prospects," he said.
Advisers like Mr. Ricks, as opposed to power users like
Ms. Malani, is what Hearsay has in mind, Ms. Prlich said. In addition to
archiving and other compliance functions, Hearsay will help advisers with
content to share and how to appropriately use hashtags to get the content
noticed.
"For folks who aren't that savvy on social media but
want to get going and get comfortable, that's something we spent a lot of time
considering," Ms. Prlich said.
D. Vance Barse, a wealth strategist with Manning
Wealth Management, said he doesn't use Instagram because he
doesn't have software to help him archive content from the app. But something
like Hearsay Social that solves the technology obstacle would make him
reconsider the platform.
"In serving multi-generational families, I've
observed that younger family members often aren't aware of the full range of
financial planning strategies and services that are available, particularly for
more complex fact patterns," Mr. Barse said in an email. "We've all seen
the commercials: free trades = good & fees = bad, but there is so much more
to the full planning picture, and Instagram could serve as a platform for savvy
advisers to capture the massive next-gen audience."
While his typical clients aren't really Instagram users,
Mr. Barse said advisers need to be thinking about the enormous wealth set to
transfer from older clients to their children.
"To show value to the next gen, advisers may want to
skate where the puck is going — pardon me, we're talking about Instagram, so I
should have said 'skatewherethepuckisgoing,' — and that's toward #Insta,"
he said.
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