They were presenting their ideas on one way ahead for planners to a packed CISI Annual Financial Planning Conference session today on how to combine digital and traditional advice and services.
Keith Butten CFP, director of boosst financial, and Warren Shute CFP, of Lexington Wealth Management, jointly presented a session at the CISI's annual Financial Planning Conference in Birmingham today on 'Using blended human and digitally-assisted advice with clients.'
They looked at the best ways to serve clients from a full Financial Planning service to 'digital assisted' and telephone services.
Mr Butten runs boosst financial which has a full Financial Planning service called 'the full boosst' which provides a full, face-to-face Financial Planning service with a minimum annual fee of £2,500 per annum. It also has a lighter touch option; a virtual Financial Planning service called 'a little boosst' which charges either £1,500 per annum or £500 per annum, with the higher fee charged when clients want face-to-face meetings instead of virtual meetings. Virtual meetings are delivered via an online video calling service using a screen share facility.
Mr Butten said a little boosst is a slimmed down "Financial Planning service delivered face-to-face or virtually."
The company also has a boosst lite service offered when clients no longer need a full service, for example if they move abroad. It is not actively marketed and isn’t for new clients, only existing clients who no longer require an active service level.
Boosst also offers an optional financial coaching service to all a little boosst clients to help them "tidy their finances and make better money choices."
Mr Shute runs a light touch, online investment service called Lexo.co.uk which provides an investment platform service as an alternative to his full service Lexington Wealth Management Financial Planning business.
Speaking to a packed audience of 100 Financial Planners, both businessmen said their online services helped them meet the needs of more clients in different ways and others could follow their leads. Few in the
audience were so far offering an online Financial Planning service, according to a show of hands.
Mr Butten said he launched a little boosst because, "for some people full cashflow doesn't work. It's good for the majority of our clients but it's not for everybody."
He said originally the 'a little boosst' service was used by clients with smaller portfolios but most clients now have £250,000 to £500,000 invested so it's not just a service for smaller asset clients.
He said he loved the fact that with his different services he could work with clients from very diverse background from farmers to entrepreneurs and many other business people.
Mr Shute said his Lexo.co.uk online investment service was very different to a little boosst and was not a Financial Planning service. It was not competing with Hargreaves Lansdown or nutmeg but some potential and suitable clients contacting Lexington were directed to Lexo if they were looking for a more limited online investing service.
He said Lexo was a standalone business and reached different types of client although he did not expect many to "transition" to a full Financial Planning service.
Both speakers agreed their online offerings were very different to each other but allowed each firm to target a wider group of customers.
Lexo generally served people with smaller portfolios and was not designed to replace a Financial Planning service and was not competing with Lexington, Mr Shute added.
The CISI's annual Financial Planning Conference - one of the biggest events in the Financial Planning calendar - opened today in Birmingham with more than 300 attendees taking part.
The two-day event, headlined ‘Changing Lives,’ is taking place this year on 1 and 2 October at the Hilton Birmingham Metropole Hotel at the NEC.
Three streams will cover: Focus on Your Clients, Spotlight on Your Business and Get Ahead Technically.
• Editor's Note: story updated Friday 5 October to make clear the distinction between the various boost offerings.