This is the second in a blog series on Skience’s integrations with Clearing and Custodial firms. You can read about our integration with Fidelity and Schwab.
Landing a new client falls on your ability to prove your worth as an advisor. You take your time listening to their concerns while helping them envision a solution. Often, this happens before they even make the decision to work with you.
Once a client signs on, providing a streamlined onboarding process is no longer something that’s “nice thing to have.” It’s become the expectation, and failing to make things easy may give clients the wrong idea about your firm’s ability to provide great service.
Here’s how Skience’s guided digital workflow helps advisors stay organized and create a seamless client experience when opening new accounts with Pershing.
Why the Client Onboarding Experience Matters
You’ve spent a lot of time and effort helping prospective clients understand the value in working with you. By the time they sign on and the onboarding process begins, the expectations around client experience are high. This is the time to prove your ability to make their financial lives easier, beginning with a seamless onboarding experience.
While ease and convenience are important, clients also want to know their information is secure. The guided digital workflow offered by Skience leads advisors and their clients through the entire process of opening a new account with Pershing, from start to finish.
To prevent unnecessary rekeying, the Quik!® form automation pulls client information into relevant form fields for advisors. And when you’re ready for your client to sign, they can do so through DocuSign®, which offers a convenient single eSignature experience.
Simply put, these Skience integrations help advisors stay organized while offering clients a simple, streamlined onboarding experience. This creates less back and forth between you and your client, while ensuring all important information is stored securely and automatically.
New Account Opening at Pershing
Skience’s API-based account opening process allows advisors to open multiple Pershing clearing or custodial accounts at once. The guided workflows use data from the Salesforce CRM to prefill new account information while built-in validations prompt the user for missing or incorrect information.
Not only does this reduce the chance of manually entering the wrong or duplicate information, but it ensures a reduction in Not in Good Order (NIGO) transactions and an overall improvement in speed and accuracy to open accounts. This allows those opening a BNY Mellon Pershing investment account to start the investment process much sooner.
Skience also offers guided new account opening workflows through a forms based approach – Advisors own DocuSign (aka Do it Yourself DocuSign). With Skience, advisors can send documents to clients for e-signature and submit those forms directly to Pershing.
Advisors and clients also benefit from Skience’s daily posting of Pershing’s account, balances, positions, and transactions.
How Skience and Pershing Work Together
Skience enables advisors to stay organized and compliant as they assist clients in opening new Pershing accounts. In addition, the integrations offered through Skience make onboarding less stressful for new clients which doesn’t just stop at opening new accounts.
Skience integrates with the Pershing Document Upload API to enable NetX360 users to send signed forms or supporting documents required by Pershing, or for Albridge Solutions Document Management and Workflows product users to transmit, process, and/or store docs at Albridge. Users can also authorize an account for eDelivery using the Skience integration with Pershing’s eDelivery API.
Storing client information in file cabinets or manila folders is quickly becoming a thing of the past.
Thanks to Skience Safe’s configurable indexing and auto-sweep of account openings, all account data is stored securely in one location. This not only creates a safer storage solution for client information, but it allows easier access and greater organization for advisors.
As a result, you have the high-level insights available to help keep your clients on track and informed of their progress during the account opening process.
Why Automating Is Important
Consider how many new client accounts you open every year.
Skience makes it possible for advisors to reduce Not in Good Order (NIGO) transactions, enforce compliant processes, and enable rules-based supervision while opening new Pershing accounts.
Instead of requiring manual data entry at the end of the account opening process, which can increase errors and frustration, advisors can use the Skience Platform’s integration with EVS to automate the client due diligence process to perform real-time checks of OFAC and AML watchlists and fraud protection based on client demographic information.
Remember, the onboarding process is your client’s first indicator as to whether or not you’ll provide a great customer experience.
If you’re able to help them open a new Pershing account with ease, they’ll feel more confident in your ability to make their financial life more manageable.
Streamlining your onboarding process starts by automating where you can. Knowing your clients’ information is secure and organized leaves you more time to focus on providing a personalized experience for your clients. Use the time automation puts back into your schedule to call prospects, schedule meetings, and check in on current clients.
Skience + Pershing
The reality is, account aggregation is here to stay. But automating the account opening process is made simple by utilizing Skience’s integrations.
Advisors who use Skience have the power to pull prefilled data from Salesforce, consolidate client information, and provide an improved eSignature experience for clients.
This API-driven integration between Skience and Pershing is designed to digitize real-life wealth management interactions. In streamlining the account opening process, the likelihood of duplication or rekeying errors is greatly reduced.
When you consider how many accounts are opened year after year, this creates a significant amount of time saved for busy advisors.
Interested in learning more about how Skience simplifies your relationship with custodians?
Check out our Skience Fair series, hosted by some of Skience’s top thought leaders or get in touch to book a demo today.