Say money problems and most people think debt and overspending. But problems with money can be much more subtle, fundamental, and insidious …
For many people, money confidence is a problem. Budgeting is a problem. Pensions are a problem. Planning in a volatile climate is a problem.
But few of us are tooled-up to address these problems when we enter adulthood. We graduate into grown-up-life and, for good or bad, most of us learn on-the-job.
The advice gap
Most of us would benefit from getting good, professional financial advice sooner rather than later. Yet just 10% of UK adults seek it out and they tend to do so later in life.
There are various reasons why so few people pursue professional financial advice but it’s primarily a cost thing. Most advisers shut you down unless you’ve £50,000+ to invest, hence those who could really use support – people just starting their money journey for example – are left to fend for themselves.
Professional financial advice is expensive and that makes it exclusive. Some in the industry half-mockingly refer to it as a luxury product.
The fact that 90% don’t or can’t access professional financial advice isn’t a new problem. In fact it’s such a well-known problem it even has a name. It’s called the advice gap.
Bridging the gap
Delivering good financial advice to millions requires two key elements if it’s to be successful: scale and human expertise.
Technology makes the scale part possible, hence we’ve seen companies turn to chatbots and dynamic questionnaires to increase capacity. But tech alone isn’t the answer.
Good or even great financial advice means factoring in the real things that make each human being unique. Good financial advice corresponds exactly to the individual’s circumstances, life, goals, motivations, fears …
Chatbots can deliver generic advice, but moulding advice and an action plan around an individual’s personality, reality and values takes real human skill.
Traditionally, deploying human skill at this level requires significant adviser / customer one-to-one time. Because time is money, this dynamic suits the adviser but doesn’t do anything to solve the problem. The majority remain on the outside looking in.
It can’t be done
The lack of progress in bridging the advice gap has led many to suggest it can’t be done. Money Means recently spoke at an event and it’s clear some even brand it impossible. You can’t have scale and human expertise, they say.
But wait. Human expertise at scale is already in play. It’s in healthcare. It’s in advertising. It’s in social media. It’s in nutrition and fitness …
In life insurance (also labelled a luxury product despite costs starting at a few quid per month), risks and probabilities are calculated at scale based on formulae developed by human experts and deployed by technology. Personalisation? Some life insurers use wearables to capture streams of user data and adjust pricing in real time.
This is a world where people float into space and cars drive themselves. Fusing technology and human expertise to help people at scale? We’re already doing it.
Who are we here to serve?
There’s naysaying and negativity around the advice gap because solving the problem means change and change is uncomfortable. It’s easier to say it’s impossible.
So solutions thus far have been more faster horses than motor cars. Extra speed here and some efficiencies there. Bells and whistles on a model that can’t work.
Yet financial advisers – and the industry at large – should want to help the majority. Should want to bridge the advice gap. Should want to empower the 90%. Impossible shouldn’t come into it.
After all, who are we here to serve?
This is our mission at Money Means. Our technology is custom-built to address the totality of a longstanding problem. We sit at the crossroads of scale and personalisation. We fuse expert human skill with an automated journey designed for the many, not the few.
We offer personalised financial advice at scale and at an accessible price.
We’re here to finally bridge the gap.