This week in the Wattletree news, is there are way to turn DDO from a massive pain in the neck to something positive? And if so, what?! Personally, I’m a big believer in the saying ‘with change comes opportunity’, and goodness me there’s a lot of change at the moment. Back to DDO specifically, we think there are two distinct opportunities. What do you think? Are we bonkers? Completely wrong? Let us know what you think in the comments sections below…
1 – better new products for consumers
By using Wattletree as your DDO compliance tool, you not only get quarterly compliance reports by product, but you also get fantastic insights into your products, how they are being sold and the sorts of consumers who are buying them (or being sold them, as is often case).
Some potential use-cases include:
- understanding the different characteristics between advised/un-advised clients, between licensees and across numerous other measures
- triggers and alerts – for instance deceased estates, or if a customer has changed address
- adviser distribution reports
- propensity modeling – ie which advisers are most likely to sell product X
- industry comparisons – how do your products compare to other similar similars, what is a typical share of portfolio for your managed funds, how insurance premiums compare between licensees and lots lots more.
- Just about anything else you can dream up…
2 – opportunity to deal with ‘less than optimal’ products
Financial services is full of lots of bright people working very hard to do the best they can for advisers and consumers. Unfortunately however, there are still products on market that just aren’t that fantastic. Often this is because the business case just doesn’t stack up to close them, or there’s a million other things to do first, or we’re trying to deliver something financial advisers say they want and consumers get lost in the process.
For example, I’ve worked on multiple adviser fee projects over the years where dead consumers were just never considered, as we were focused on doing a great job for advisers and helping them make their businesses more efficient, not on the flow on effects for consumers if they passed away. And just in the last few weeks I’ve learnt about Trauma products that have morphed into TPD products in order to reduce the premiums (again, probably at the behest of advisers trying to do the right thing by their clients). Admirable intentions all round, but perhaps not quite the best outcome…
So, if you do get a spare minute (hahahaha!), it’s worth considering if DDO could be an opportunity to make fixing/closing some of those products a higher priority.
Let’s talk
If there’s a burning DDO question that no-one seems to have a good answer to, or you just need to understand how Wattletree works in more detail, please get in touch. I invite you to shoot through your Q’s using the below form or alternatively you can call me on 0417 970 818. There’s no such thing as a silly question*.
*OK, we all know that’s rubbish but you know what I mean!
Cheers, Sarah
