…Wait, what?<\/i><\/p>\n
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\u2192 Looking\u00a0to fully\u00a0understanding it yourself?\u00a0You can learn everything you need to know about Account Aggregation in the time it takes to eat lunch.<\/a><\/p>\n First, we\u2019re not suggesting you speak to your clients like they\u2019re 6 years old (that\u2019d be patronizing). We\u2019re simply suggesting you set about your explanation with a simple, friendly mindset.<\/p>\n Basically, “explain like I’m six”\u00a0involves three things:<\/p>\n – Avoiding terminology Let’s dive in.<\/p>\n Account aggregation is technology that brings account data together from many sources into a single place. The sources may include asset managers, banks, brokerages, insurance carriers or even credit card and mortgage companies.<\/p>\n For advisors, it eliminates the need to collect paper statements and manually key data into financial planning, performance reporting, CRM, client portals or other systems.<\/p>\n The data is typically collected daily and most often includes information on all positions in an account with their closing market values. The data will also typically include any account transaction activity. We say typically because update frequency can vary by vendor as well as data source (e.g. Fixed annuity values may only be updated monthly).<\/p>\n However, with custodial accounts, the technology can leverage the advisor\u2019s access to pull in all client accounts at once. While not all vendors offer custodial data as well as held-away, those that do offer a powerful single place to consolidate all client data.<\/p>\n Avoid terminology and keep it short. Explain account aggregation without using the actual term. Narrow in your focus to why aggregation matters to them. Try one of these:<\/p>\n \u201cIt provides a single spot to see all your accounts\u201d \u201cHave access to view ALL of your financial activity, summarized on demand.\u201d<\/p>\n Account aggregation automatically collects financial information from accounts at different institutions \u2013 your custodian(s) and your clients\u2019 held-away accounts \u2013 brings it to one place, and makes the information available to other systems.<\/p>\n Make the conversation a dialogue. Point out examples of other ways your client \u201caggregates\u201d in their everyday life (such as X). Pause after a minute or two to avoid rambling, and just see how a client responds. Listen to their questions, provide direct answers, and ask them questions to gauge their understanding of the concept before you conclude the conversation.<\/p>\n With Blueleaf, the power of account aggregation is evident in their easy-to-navigate online client portal. If you have a tool like this handy, it\u2019s incredibly powerful to demonstrate account aggregation while your client is logged into their portal, in the driver\u2019s seat. A good place to start would be to demonstrate to them how to add an account to their own client portal<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cExplain Like I\u2019m Five\/Six\u201d is actually a concept taken from Reddit<\/a>. We wrote a blog post about Reddit a few weeks ago, which you can check out here<\/a>.
\n– Keeping it short
\n– Making it a conversation<\/p>\nWhat is account aggregation?<\/h2>\n
The industry explanation:<\/h3>\n
What\u2019s a friendlier way to explain it? <\/b><\/h2>\n
\n\u201cYou can pull all of your financial information into one place\u201d
\n\u201cFinally get your complete financial picture\u201d
\n\u201cMonitor all of your accounts and activity from a single login\u201d<\/p>\nNext: How does it work?<\/h3>\n
Explain it through dialogue, and demonstrate it live.<\/h3>\n
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