Independent financial advice market has a long-standing history in the UK with more than 14,000 financial advisers servicing more than 5 million customers each year.
I think everyone can agree that fintech, as a tech and growth business, has been in a bubble over the recent years. There was lots of easy money pouring into the economy. Valuations skyrocketed on growth projections but without any meaningful profitability to back it up. And because of that, many fintech companies became dis-attached from the real world and the economy
Today we see increasing interest rates and value businesses starting to perform again. So if we are looking at tech only for the purpose of tech, we don’t see many companies surviving in such an environment going forward.
I believe that fintech companies that will survive are those who work with real industries. They don’t invent anything new or try to replace existing industries. They address real problems that companies face right now. They work with real businesses and help to increase their profitability, service more clients, service them better and maybe a bit more different. That is what we are doing at JustFA.
Now, what about the financial advice industry?
Independent financial advice market has a long-standing history in the UK with more than 14,000 financial advisers servicing more than 5 million customers each year.
Over the last decade, I have seen numerous changes due to new regulations within the financial industry which limited the ability of financial advisers to provide affordable services to their clients. And more than 5 million of people today cannot afford to pay for financial advice, much as they would like to. The advice firms find it unprofitable and a compliance risk to service the next generation of clients or to attract the next generation of advisers.
This is why we have developed JustFA Technology, which is a fintech solution that creates efficiencies across the advice process thus significantly cutting the costs of servicing clients whilst retaining high levels of client care and satisfaction. It also enables young advisers to cut their teeth on lower-value and younger clients – from their peer group perhaps – who will in turn become the wealth management clients of the future.
We are not trying to create a stand-alone online financial adviser. In fact, we think it will be a commoditized business in the very near future. Every financial adviser will have an online business, and that is our mission - to enable every financial adviser in the UK to launch an online proposition in a matter of weeks.
We service the existing financial advice industry and help them to be more profitable so they have more clients and make their clients happy. And so they can be more prepared for the challenges that the industry is facing such as intergenerational change, turn in the economic cycle, pressure on fees, increasing the longevity of the business and its equity value.
About JustFA Technology
JustFA is an 'Advice and Investment' platform for advisers and their retail clients. It provides advisers with entire back office and investment platform functionality, supporting the advice process from start to finish in one convenient system.
Modern communication tools within the system allow advisers to deliver fully online advice to their clients, whilst retaining the crucial human element that builds lasting relationships. JustFA makes it easier to engage clients, is straightforward and overall makes the advice process more convenient and affordable to many more people. In other words, bridging the advice gap.
Taras Rybak, Chief Strategy Officer at JustFA Technology