LPL’s Gary Carrai: Tech Gets Personal | T3 Post-Panel Insights

Last Edited by: LPL Financial

Last Updated: June 29, 2022

LPL Executive Vice President of Wealth Management Solutions Gary Carrai

"… when advisors harness technology to its greatest advantage in their practice, they are better positioned to serve clients and better able to differentiate their client experience, while having the resources and capacity to serve the growing marketplace demand."

Gary Carrai, Executive Vice President, Wealth Management Solutions, LPL Financial

The pandemic has changed the way many people work, interact, and operate in their business roles — the finance world has been no exception. In an industry in which in-person conversations are a hallmark, financial advisors were forced to embrace — whether they were ready to or not — a more technological mode of team collaboration and client interaction. For advisors affiliated with LPL Financial, the fruits of LPL’s former tech investments were already ripe and ready to help advisors navigate new digital frontiers.

LPL Financial’s leaders are still putting tech at the forefront to not only help advisors better serve their clients, but also better connect with clients through personalization. This idea of technology being utilized to enrich client connections was a key part of the “T3 Advisor Conference” which featured Gary Carrai, Executive Vice President, Wealth Management Solutions, LPL Financial as an attendee and panel guest at this 2022 T3 gathering.

Here are a few of Gary Carrai’s insights and takeaways from the event, in his own words:

3 key technology trends in wealth management

Carrai on technology’s rapid innovation and the need to meet investor’s evolving behaviors and needs in the financial industry: 

Technology today has gone way beyond streamlining processes and increasing efficiencies; it’s no longer a means to reduce the cost to serve — it’s a strategic enabler to increasing personalization. Through personalization, advisors can differentiate and enhance all aspects of the business lifecycle and their relationships with their clients. As the industry charges in that direction, enterprise firms are evolving how they approach and invest in technology to deliver personalization at scale. Innovation in today’s environment goes deeper than the capabilities level. Firms are putting technology into advisors’ hands to innovate, giving them highly personalized and value-based experiences.

Trend #1: Personalization is enabled by a strong foundation

Carrai on how and where firms can efficiently invest to increase personalization potential:

Data drives personalization, and security and compliance oversight are among the biggest areas of a firm’s spend. A technology foundation must provide a secure, scalable and flexible platform. Ongoing, committed investments in technology enable more than just whiz bang digital solutions. Firms must also allocate investments in the cloud, data, security and the capacity to scale without interruption.

Some enterprises and institutions are having to choose where to invest in their business, and then how to break down what is secured for technology. With a need to invest wide and deep, and given the pace of change, what we’ll likely see are firms either leaping ahead or losing ground quickly in the marketplace, based on their committed investments and prioritization of these foundational components.  

Trend #2: Adoption lives at the intersection of technology and humanity

Carrai on the pandemic’s influence on tech adoption in the financial industry and where tech and human expertise come together to amplify client interactions:

Tech adoption still presents as a hurdle. Yet, we know when advisors harness technology to its greatest advantage in their practice, they are better positioned to serve clients and better able to differentiate their client experience, while having the resources and capacity to serve the growing marketplace demand. Adoption is not the onus of the advisor alone. Firms have a role as well. To enable advisors to that end, firms are factoring in the human ingredient to remove hurdles and help advisors maximize the value of the technology.

Advisors enter wealth management for the love of providing advice to their clients, not to program technology. Providing human support to help advisors and practices build their ideal tech stacks, including curation and implementation, takes the pressure off the advisor to be expert at both delivering advice and technology. If the time to learn or optimize the use of the technology inhibits opportunity, firms can fill the gap with human expertise. For example, through technological services such as LPL Financial’s Paraplanning Services, advisors can get personalized investor insights and advanced recommendations that support advisors in enriching, growing, and nurturing their client relationships.

>>Does your tech stack really stack up? Read Gary Carrai’s article, "What Many Advisors Get Wrong About their Technology Stack", for key insights. 

Trend #3: Moving beyond work streams to enabling relationships

Carrai on seeing client experience as the core focus of technological integration and how that leads to opportunities for practice success: 

Our industry began to differentiate through integration with 3rd party technologies and by connecting workflows to extend that data sharing and efficiency across the tech stack. That approach to integration will continue to have value, and require continuing investments in API enablement to enhance the access and use of data. As we look ahead, integration presents an even greater opportunity for enterprise firms.

Technology becomes the means to nurture the client relationship across all aspects of the day to day experience and business lifecycle of a practice. And, technology creates points of engagement with the advisor or institution to support them where they are in their business, in that moment, and empowers them for what is next. A single, integrated platform personalizes the experience across service, growth and business evolution to lay the groundwork for future success.

LPL Financial invests in technology that helps advisors grow their way

As Gary Carrai’s words reiterate, we at LPL Financial are keeping technology in focus so advisors can thrive within an evolving financial industry and continue seeing the opportunities and capabilities it presents—especially for unprecedented challenges.

Through LPL Technology you, the advisor, can find award winning productivity tools and an expansive catalogue of platforms to help you help your clients visualize their financial journeys and grow your practice. 


Disclosures

The views and opinions expressed by the LPL Financial representative are not indicative of future performance or success. LPL Financial cannot be held responsible for any direct or incidental loss incurred by applying any of the information offered.

LPL’s Financial Technology

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How Does Your Technology Stack Up?

Read Gary Carrai’s "What Many Advisors Get Wrong About their Technology Stack", for key insights.

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