With all the chatter about AI and the dangers it poses to the world, I can’t help but think of Arnold Schwarzenegger in "The Terminator." While I certainly wouldn’t want him chasing me with a kill mandate, I often thought he’d be a great ally in a fight. He’s like an entire army of warriors. As it turns out, he comes back in the sequel to protect rather than harm.
At WBI, we have built software incorporating the best processes we can design to terminate inefficiency at every turn for our investment and wealth management business. By doing so, we believe we can compete in the financial services industry, populated by some of the largest companies in the world with access to unlimited capital and resources. We've taken a page out of the "Terminator" movie script by unleashing Cyborg power for our business, the advisors we serve, and their clients. The advisor brings the human component, while the Cy platform brings an AI machine learning engine and other tech that terminates inefficiency.
An advisor's job is never done. When I was building my practice, my days were long, averaging about fourteen hours, five days a week, with work routinely spilling over into the weekend. Normal business hours were reserved for selling, while financial planning, paperwork, and follow-up took up nights and weekends. I grew tired of this routine and vowed to figure out how to make my business run more efficiently. I tried the plethora of software developed for the industry by well-meaning programmers but found they often missed the mark. Designers and programmers typically did not have the knowledge and experience needed to solve an advisor’s unique set of requirements.
To address this, we started developing our own software about 25 years ago, including middle and back-office software to handle everything from CRM, planning workflow, portfolio management, account opening, trading, rebalancing, reconciliation, billing, and reporting. This fully integrated “WBI App” allows us to run one of the most efficient firms in the industry. But, we were still missing a front end!
Cy’s project managers built a streamlined client engagement system that educates, creates financial profiles, provides loss tolerance analysis, and financial planning to develop a required rate of return to achieve retirement goals. Almost instantly, it provides a bespoke portfolio mathematically designed to fit the client’s benchmarks for loss tolerance and rate of return. The Cy platform includes a machine learning optimization engine that develops a virtually unlimited array of strategies that advisors and clients can use to further customize their investment implementation. Once the strategy is set, Cy includes an advanced digital onboarding process to open accounts seamlessly without NIGOs.
When the Cy platform was in Beta, an advisor used it to engage with a new client, the parents of a college friend who were retiring. The advisor was on the East Coast, and the client was on the West Coast, which was not a problem because the Cy program is easy to use on Zoom. The prospects became clients in 30 minutes, adding $2 million to their new Cy accounts.
This experience was vastly different for the clients, who indicated they had never seen anything like the Cy platform, and for the advisor, who did not need multiple meetings to engage the client, gather data, present the investment plan, and complete the paperwork to open accounts. The advisor did not have to spend hours designing a portfolio by hand or go back to clients to re-sign paperwork that was missing information. All in all, the Cy process terminates the inefficiencies that many advisors continue to deal with today.
The Cy platform is easy to use and takes no time for planners and staff to learn, allowing more time for the entire organization to focus on growing their business. You can sign up for free and take a test drive – it may just change your business life.