Wealth management COOs can deliver maximum positive impact at their new job with the right mindset, a sound strategy, and leading the way with action, not just words.
Starting a new job, in most cases, is an exciting new beginning…
Perhaps a bump in pay and benefits, a better work environment, and the chance to build on past success now working at a more prestigious organization.
… or it’s a much needed fresh start, leaving behind a bit-so-great previous situation, and now you’re ready to prove you can turn things around.
Sometimes you’re entering a position where things are already set pretty nicely.
… others you’re entering a mess that you’ve been hired to clean up…
In any case, COOs can leave a lasting impact with their new firm by following the below best practices.
Rome wasn’t built in a day, but if you take incremental approaches and methodic steps to achieve some, most, or all of these practices, soon enough you’ll see great results.
When joining a new company, you’re managing people who’ve already been with the company and are used to a certain culture and way of doing things.
Your own way and vision might differ, so make sure you get the team to buy in and be patient with them as they adjust to the new regime.
The staff needs to know and feel they are valued and heard, and when those conditions are met, they will be more willing to work with you as you implement your vision.
After getting the team on your side, the next step is establishing accountability.
To do so, make it clear what their responsibilities are and establish reasonable expectations.
This means getting credit for following through on their work, but also answering to things that aren’t done properly or not done at all.
If you ask someone to do something, follow up with them and make sure they do it.
If you assign work and don’t check on the team regularly — and they don’t do the work — they’ll take your words less seriously and won’t do what you want them to.
In line with accountability, creating key performance indicators is a great way to track progress and ensure alignment with organizational goals.
These are just a few examples of many other potential KPIs. Choose ones that are most relevant and impactful, and don’t forget to adjust the KPIs - when needed - as business changes.
The same high expectations you hold for others, hold them for yourself too. Follow through on your own commitments.
Also, be a mentor.
Team upskilling comes in large part from your ability to lead and teach your team the necessary things to succeed on the job, as you define success.
Team members appreciate leaders who are willing to invest their own time to better their team, and your efforts will be rewarded with increased productivity and loyalty.
Just as you offer time to teach and mentor, invest in team training for other situations.
Whether it’s wealth platform training or earning official certifications with certain systems, have the team as useful and functional for you. AI, prompt engineering… go for it.
Yes, the team must serve company interests, but also do what they need for their own career interests, whether or not they stay with your firm.
As team members come and go, develop plans to better retain the desired existing talent and how to attract desired new talent.
This includes thinking about incentives, rewards, and work from home policies…
In some cases, you’ll take over and realize you don’t have the right personnel.
Still, be fair and give people a chance to adjust. Following the examples above, and after 6-12 months you’ll know who is meant and who isn’t to be part of your operations team.
Make your moves accordingly.
Portfolio accounting, OMS/PMS, CRM, risk and rebalancing tools, and more…
Consider the effectiveness of all the current tools.
Keep an eye out for redundancy - can any functions be consolidated into a single platform?)
The same goes for integration and ease of function. Especially with legacy platforms that don’t integrate well with other systems, that creates a lot of extra work. In those cases, consider new options, but have a plan in place (discussed below further).
Maybe the systems in place are just fine (or not), but they’ve been under-utilized by the team.
Whatever the situation may be, the technology at hand must be used to the fullest.
There are a lot of features and functions that go unused that could otherwise deliver value. Otherwise it’s money down the drain.
Often times., the new wealth management COO enters an organization with fragmented data systems.
The first step is start mapping and auditing all data sources to pinpoint silos, manual workflows, and error-prone processes.
Then, consider centralizing data into an integrated cloud-based platform, helping to eliminate redundancies, automate processes, and ensure seamless connectivity between CRM, portfolio management systems, custodians, and other platforms.
Implementing robust investment data management protocols—paired with AI-powered analytics—enables real-time portfolio insights, reduces operational risks, and enhances decision-making accuracy.
Humans are still important, but long gone are the days of throwing bodies at problems and challenges to fix everything.
Technology will play a key role in your operation’s future effectiveness, and how you and your team leverage the tools is the next question.
We’re not the first ones to extoll the benefits of machine learning, and similarly, average AI budgets for wealth management are expected to increase
16% to 37% over the next 3-5 years.
Of course, use AI tools wherever appropriate with reports, data compilation and analysis, predictive analytics, among other use cases…
Even though AI output should have a degree of human oversight, the time (and money) saved from not having to do so much “busy work” (that AI can do) is considerable.
No wealth management operation can function properly with high costs, inefficiency, and lack of scalability.
Think about all the means at your disposal to eliminate unnecessary expenses while boosting efficiency and scaling your practice.
Considering disposing of older systems that create process inefficiency and drive up costs.
Upskill your team’s talent, reposition their workloads to higher-value activities, and consider leveraging tools like RPA (Robotic Process Automation) to streamline the work.
Also, migrate all data to cloud-based systems for easy access and enhanced collaboration between team members.
Be proactive when it comes to testing your operation’s durability for times of times of challenge or crisis.
5 years ago, it was COVID. The pandemic is over, but new threats will emerge especially related to cybersecurity, from phishing to hacking.
Not to mention extreme market downtowns, key-personnel risk, data issues, technology constraints… identify everything that could negatively your operation.
Conduct these stress test as they are great ways to discover weaknesses internally before they affect the external.
Make sure you put into place the infrastructure, policy, and protocol to withstand threats like cyberattacks, data loss, or technology malfunctions.
The best way to prevent a disaster is by taking steps early on before it becomes said disaster, ensuring it almost never happens.
Whether it’s the right fintech and data providers, consultants, or third-party outsourcing specialists, find those partners who will advance the interests of your wealth management firm’s operation.
On the outsourcing front, consider factors like cost efficiencies, work skills and specialties, and freeing up internal resources to perform higher-value tasks.
When evaluating vendors, also consider qualifications and compliance credentials.
At Empaxis, we have partnered with wealth managers in their middle and back office for 20+ years, and firms trust us for our deep domain expertise in areas of reconciliation, performance, billing, automation, investment data QA assurance, data migrations, and platform upgrades and implementation.
Our ISO 22301 certification demonstrates Empaxis's ability to help wealth managers protect against business disruptions while improving their operational efficiency.
If you’re considering system and data management overhauls, be prepared to pack your patience and do as much prep as you can, as early as you can.
Your effectiveness as a leader will show in these kinds of projects, transitioning from one platform to another and/or reworking the entire data management process.
There’s no denying or getting around the complexity and difficulty in these projects, however positively impactful they may be.
But don’t do it alone. Partner with wealth management data and platform migration experts like Empaxis.
Starting a new job is an exciting new beginning, but as a wealth management COO, the pressure will be on once the “honeymoon period” ends, if there is one.
You're tasked with fixing things that predated your arrival, and the problems may be larger and more complex than you once thought.
You won't solve all problems at once, but start with baby steps. Take on a logical and methodical approach.
In the process, be a good leader; you need the cooperation of your team to successfully implement the plans.
By following the above methods with team management, operations, data, technology, compliance, project management and third-party vendor management, you're on path to achieve your operational objectives.
Empaxis helps wealth managers improve their operation by providing middle- and back-office support, finance and accounting services, and systems integration solutions.
Schedule a consultation to learn more.
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