Technology Usually Costs Money. Tower Can Help You Make Money.

It’s no secret that investment advisors in Spain would prefer to work with the latest developments in front-office technology to maximize their efficiency, reduce their costs, and scale their business. Their firms also seek similar outcomes, yet decision-makers are often hesitant to invest in advisor technology. “It’s a tricky proposition,” or “It’ll take years before we see a return on investment,” it is said by some, to which we reply, “Wanna bet?”

Meet Tower—our portfolio management solution that enables the outcomes advisors expect from technology. As you’ll see from the case study below, an investment in Tower not only gives time back to advisors but also pays for itself and produces a return on investment (ROI) in just one year. Keep reading to understand how and why Tower may be well worth the investment.

Business Case: What’s Five Minutes Worth from an Advisor’s Perspective

Every minute an advisor spends on a repetitive or manual task is a minute that could be spent on a more productive endeavour. It’s why advisors continually look for ways to save time and increase their efficiency. Take portfolio rebalancing as an example. Without an automated portfolio management system, an advisor spends 60 minutes, on average, to rebalance one portfolio per client. Let’s say an advisor manages a 20 million € book with a 100-basis-point turn rate, putting their gross revenue before grid at 200.000 € per year. This advisor works eight hours a day for 223 days per year (assuming 23 vacation days and 14 public holidays in Spain), so the cost of their time is worth 1,€ per minute. Now let’s examine the capacity savings this advisor can expect from getting back a mere five minutes of their time per workday over the course of one year. The business case comes together quite easily.

By saving five minutes of their time leveraging Tower, this advisor frees up 2.085 € (1,87 € x 5 minutes x 223 days) worth of capacity in the implementation year alone. The annual cost to license Tower, however, is significantly lower.* This means that within their first year of using the technology, the advisor recoups their investment cost and is actually generating ROI. In other words, the advisor is ahead in net savings and now has more free time to earn additional revenue at the same rate. Over time, the compounding effect on productivity gains could add up to considerable revenue for the advisor.

In reality, Tower saves advisors far more than five minutes in their workdays. Our automated portfolio management capabilities reduce the amount of time it takes to complete tasks from hours to minutes, thus helping advisors work smarter, not harder. Going back to portfolio rebalancing, let’s assume an advisor rebalances 100 client portfolios twice a year. Without technology, this advisor spends 60 minutes rebalancing one portfolio per client, or the equivalent of 25 workdays, to rebalance 200 portfolios a year. With Tower, automation helps the advisor complete a rebalance in 10 minutes, thereby taking only 4 workdays to do the same amount of work! This means that the advisor has just freed up 21 days of annual capacity to focus on other priorities and higher-value activities. At this rate, if the advisor rebalances only two portfolios a month, then their investment in Tower has already paid for itself.

Business Case: What’s Five Minutes Worth from a Firm’s Perspective

In today’s environment, firms are looking for ways to do more at less cost. Let’s say the advisor in the above example works for a company with 500 advisors in total and all advisors have identical business economics: each manages a 20 million € book at a 100-basis-point turn rate, with gross revenue before grid at 200.000 € per year. The advisors work eight hours a day for 223 days per year, pegging their per-minute value at 1,87 €. The firm is considering an investment in Tower to improve the front-end experience for its salesforce and save time in their day-to-day processes.

By giving back five minutes of time to every advisor over the year, the firm saves 1.042.500 € (2.085 € in savings per advisor x 500 advisors) by leveraging Tower. The firm’s cost to license the technology, however, is significantly less than 990.000 €. Even with an implementation cost, the firm still nets efficiency gains by the end of the year.

A Few Minutes with Tower Pays for Itself

It’s hard to deny the financial benefits that come with using technology—and the case study drives the point home: an investment in Tower can pay for itself and generate ROI in just one year. It also offers other benefits such as portfolio monitoring and rebalancing, analytics, modeling, and reporting to help you provide a high level of service to clients. If you’re looking to add these capabilities to your business, then Tower could be a worthwhile investment. Please contact us today and we’ll discuss your needs together.