Looking Ahead Into 2022

In 2020, while presenting on the Black Diamond® Wealth Platform's continual evolution, I discussed the Red Queen Effect, which is a helpful metaphor for understanding how the rapid progress of technology impacts our lives and businesses. The anecdote from Alice in Wonderland emphasizes the increased speed one needs to move to keep up with one’s surroundings. Put simply, complacency will lead to failure over time.

Over the last few years, we've seen continued innovation in technology along with an increased consumer appetite for new solutions. In the world of wealth management specifically, removing old barriers, such as high costs and location-based boundaries, has provided investors with anytime, anywhere access to experts. As a result, choice, convenience, and customization dominate and shape today's client expectations.

Looking ahead, the role an advisor plays in their clients' financial lives will continue to evolve. As consumers increasingly compare the usability and benefits of the apps and services they use, it will become critical to offer customizable experiences that build relationships efficiently. The Black Diamond team continues to evaluate topics that are trending to potentially add additional benefits for advisor’s business such as:

• Compliant access to annuity and trust providers
• Personalized investment approaches via ESG
• Custom indexing investment vehicle creation
• Investor behavior profiling
• Family counseling
• Estate planning
• Mortgage assistance
• Insurance solutions

Improving advisor efficiency frees valuable time for more important activities, such as working with clients or prospects. In the new year, additional investment management services will further integrate these capabilities throughout the platform while also adding key features to our rebalancing engine and incorporating more complex trading functionality. Additionally, we plan to further invest in our Firm Reporting suite, allowing advisors to keep a pulse on their business while advancing compliance and billing applications.

Data is a platform’s lifeblood, and accurate and complete data drives efficiency. We will look to maximize our data capture from all sources in the upcoming year, focusing on custodial and integration partners. We are also working towards a solution for dual entry as part of our ongoing platform maintenance. As we continue building our API gateway, we’ll also introduce more self-service tools using data to automate redundant tasks such as account assignment and householding.

To positively impact advisor-investor dialogue, our primary focus remains Client View, a comprehensive view of a client’s financial life. To keep up with growing expectations, we'll continue to invest in expanding the financial life topics we cover, such as supporting a broader spectrum of asset types like stock options or trusts.

Expect to see significant progress on our reporting flexibility across the platform, improvements to Investor Account Aggregation, the Balance Sheet, and more. We also realize effective communication with clients is paramount, so we'll continue to help firms communicate more effectively with improvements to the Client To-Do list, The Relationship Timeline, and the Document Vault.

We will also explore the concept of financial wellness, working to help firms understand the motivation and values that drive client decisions. As we evolve beyond financial accounts and assets, we'll move towards helping to capture a client's values, goals, hopes, dreams, and ultimate purpose for accumulating wealth in the first place. Understanding these perspectives can only lead to better outcomes. In addition, this year, firms will gain new abilities like projecting assets into the future and more insight into critical factors like Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) reporting. 

We are fortunate to work in an industry that progresses rapidly. Change is exciting and leads to new opportunities. As your trusted partner, we look forward to continuing to move your business forward at a rapid pace.

To learn how the Black Diamond Wealth Platform can support your business, request a personalized demo today.