RIA Tech Trend: Paperless onboarding

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There are many ways for RIAs to go paperless these days, one of which is paperless onboarding. This technology aims to improve the way RIA firms collect and use data from new clients. Here’s what paperless onboarding entails.

What is paperless onboarding?

Paperless onboarding is the process of welcoming new clients to your business without requiring all of the traditional paperwork. Typical RIA client onboarding processes tend to be tedious and heavy on documentation. This is because RIA firms need to gather a lot of information throughout the entire onboarding process, including prospecting, product selection, regulatory checks, and new account opening.

With paperless onboarding, RIAs can streamline the processes involved in collecting, filtering, and storing new client data. It can also make for a much smoother and easier process for your clients.

What are the benefits of paperless onboarding?

As with any process that eliminates the need for paper, paperless onboarding clearly benefits the environment. Businesses that go paperless not only reduce environmental harm, but they also enjoy the following advantages:

Improved user experience

Putting it simply, filling out a standardized digital form using a keyboard beats having to write all the information down with pen and paper. Digital onboarding forms can even be configured to have only drop-down menus and checkboxes to make the form completion process faster. New clients won’t have to spend so much time filling out forms, and your team can get on with providing financial services to your clients.

Enhanced efficiency

One of the most common complaints about traditional onboarding systems is that they tend to be cumbersome and time-consuming, not to mention error-prone. Paper forms need to be transcribed onto the client platform, and other paperwork need to be printed and sent out to other departments or organizations.

On the other hand, a fully digital onboarding process can be customized for whatever onboarding spiel and flow a business needs. It’s perfect for clients who prefer to work on the go and don’t have ready access to a printer or a briefcase full of pre-printed forms. It also makes locating files simpler and more reliable, saving your RIAs precious time and effort. This ensures your RIAs stay focused on providing your clients with real-time, high-quality financial advice.

Reduced costs

Going paperless doesn’t just lower your spending on paper products, but it also helps you save money on printer and photocopier ownership, postage, and ink costs. Furthermore, you save a lot of physical space by going paperless, which can translate to lower office rental spending.

Elevated security and compliance

On a paperless onboarding system, you can enhance both of your security and compliance profiles in one fell swoop. Digital forms allow for quick and secure storage of private information — and your system can be configured to automatically back up and archive files as they are stored, making compliance a breeze to achieve.

Aside from storage ease, digital data is very easy to protect. Access can be set to as-needed basis for every user, including company outsiders. You can be assured that RIAs get all the accessibility they need to do their jobs without the same risk of loss or error physical forms have.

Why should my RIA firm adopt paperless onboarding?

Many small- or medium-sized RIA practices work at a fast pace, so every opportunity to save time should be considered. And with such tough competition, sticking with error-prone paper forms can mean the difference between acquiring a new client and losing one.

With a paperless onboarding system, you can take advantage of automation to move the process along independently. It makes for a more efficient use of your company’s resources and ensures that RIAs can provide high levels of customer service to both new and existing clients.

Ask us how we can integrate paperless onboarding into your current system or upgrade your whole system altogether. Reach us via phone at (855) 957-5334 or via fax at 877-415-0059 to learn more. You can also get a FREE quote from us by clicking here.

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