Just five percent of savers studied prefer tech-only advice. (Photo: Shutterstock)
Financial advisors are worried about being supplanted by robo-advice, but according to a new study by MDRT, they should instead prepare to share the field with robos—since consumers want both humans and tech.
Study results find that while 88 percent of respondents want tech to complement humans, rather than replace them, 85 percent would rather deal with a human financial advisor than a robo-advisor.
However, 95 percent say that human advisors need to be tech savvy and to use tech tools in their practices—so there's no dodging the tech bullet.
Just five percent weigh in in favor of tech-only advice, while 36 percent strongly disagree that robos can completely replace humans when it comes to financial planning.
And even though 71 percent say that financial planning should be handled by a mix of people and tech tools, only 36 percent would trust a robo to manage their financial plan effectively, compared with 83 percent who would trust a human.
They see the chief advantage of robos as cutting down on human error (49 percent), and also cite the cost of humans (47 percent) as a major disadvantage to sticking with a flesh-and-blood advisor.
However, they do worry about potential data breaches from robos (46 percent fear loss of personal data, while 44 percent worry about financial data going astray).
With 68 percent relying on advisors for retirement advice, it's perhaps understandable that 31 percent say human advisors might not make accurate financial predictions; advisors using software to model financial outcomes, the report says, can mitigate these fears.
But while 94 percent of respondents say it's at least somewhat important that their advisor use software for financial outcome modeling, just 48 percent say those advisors actually do rely on software.
There are similar disparities between what clients expect of advisors in using cloud technology to store financial plans—80 percent expect it, while just 28 percent say it's a reality—and the use of e-mail and/or social media to improve communication, with 71 percent saying it should happen and only 33 percent saying it does.
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Marlene Satter
Marlene Y. Satter has worked in and written about the financial industry for decades.
