Amy Janses is the Senior Vice President for Wealth Production Management at Johnson Financial Group. Her first step towards the financial services industry was in an operational role, which later moved into the product management space within wealth management. She leads the product team for the wealth management business at Johnson Financial Group. She works on leading a transformational project for the company consolidating custodians. Her role includes identifying the right system or tool to use for consolidating and eliminating redundancies to really just make the business more efficient to be able to grow more rapidly in the future.
What are the current challenges that are plaguing the wealth management industry on a daily basis?
Some of the day-to-day challenges in the wealth management industry include the technology that we rely upon to provide services to our clients. With the technology constantly developing, it becomes difficult for clients to enter similar information into multiple different systems. We make use of the swivel chair concept, to make the process easier. One of the challenges and biggest opportunities we have is eliminating the redundancy there, and working more on integrating systems to provide efficient services to clients. It enables our advisors to spend more time with the help of technology to be able to deliver services and products faster. There are lots of opportunities to continue to use technology in the best way.
Could you elaborate some of the technologies that you are currently using or which are prevailing in the market today that are reducing redundancies?
When we thought about transforming our business, it was really about trying to identify partners that were more open to architecture that enable the use of API’s to transfer data from one system to another, or to work with two organizations. It was about how we can transmit files, on a daily basis, between the two organizations to keep things in sync. A lot of what we're doing in our transformation is identifying systems and vendors who are open to newer platforms, and who potentially already have received some traction on integrating with certain systems. With vendors open to integration, we can start having conversations with them to make the integration efficient. In the industry some companies are moving faster than others, while the others are taking their time. It is about making sure you're identifying the right partners, who are amenable to helping with that integration.
“We focus on better understanding the client and their goals for the assets that they have accumulated, to help them achieve success.”
How do you manage customer relations in your organization's practices, or operations?
Over the past couple of years we have changed our approach toward client engagement. We focus on creating a better relationship with the clients, understanding their goals for the assets they have accumulated, and how those assets impact the company and their clients. We've started to take this very concerted effort on just listening, asking open ended questions, and really trying to acknowledge the needs of our clients. The better you understand the hopes, dreams, and wishes of clients, the more impact you can have on them. In such a situation, investment performance becomes less of an issue and investment management and money management become major factors. It is about the relationship you form with the client, knowing them, and gathering information about them to provide an effective solution. We found that asking open-ended questions and better understanding the customer uncovers the opportunity for us to introduce the clients to other parts of the organization. As we start to dip our toes more and more into this, we're certainly seeing much more success in our business lines working together, and our client's needs being met by all the services that we have to offer.
Do you have any advice for your peers or industry leaders that are in the wealth management space?
It's about keeping a pulse on what's happening in our market space, knowing who our clients are. It is important to be in tune on how one could make their organization relevant to the customers. I think it's having that leadership, courage to ask the hard questions, understand where the industry is going, understand the changes that you need to do to make yourself and your organization continue to be relevant. And with that comes the difficulties as you move into that transformational journey. People have to be accustomed to change. While moving forward towards change, you have to be thinking about the longevity and the sustainability of the business. Sometimes that might mean bringing in new players and helping those who are new to change. The process might be difficult for some people while you're undergoing transformation. But going through all the blockades and challenges that come your way is what will make your business flourish in the market.
