Sarah Brennan
Leading industry market research firm, Investment Trends, and independent global technology consultancy, Finura Group, are working together to deliver deep quantitative research and an enhanced experience for clients who want deep insights into the area of financial services technology.
Investment Trends is a financial services industry research company, specialising in delivering actionable insights and decision support to the world’s leading organisations. Finura Group is an independent global technology consultancy and is launching a Finura Insights division to support this partnership. Finura Group works with progressive financial services businesses to provide best practice digital advice frameworks and technology transformation systems.
The new alliance brings together a wealth of research experience and deep technology expertise, through a shared belief that financial services technology will continue to change rapidly for the benefit of financial intermediaries, and the end consumers. We have therefore chosen three areas of research to combine our capabilities and assist firms in adapting to this changing environment:
- Examining adviser’s evolving technology needs, key platform and planning software industry trends, drivers/barriers of selection and satisfaction with platforms. Recent Investment Trends research shows this is an area of increasing importance as evidenced by the 2021 Adviser Technology Needs Report showing that COVID has accelerated the use of digital tools in all areas and the uptake of digital engagement methods look set to stay, particularly online meetings, digital signatures, and email campaigns.
- Providing an in-depth review of recent developments in the Australian advice technology space, including a benchmark of functionality offered by established advice software providers. Advisers are seeking information around where they sit compared to their peers and areas for improvement. To support this, our 2020 Advice Technology study showed numerous acquisitions and new startups entering the space prompting the industry’s leading providers to rebrand and reposition through increased advertising and funding for adviser support activities.
- The latest developments in digital technology used to deliver wealth services to Australian retail consumers. We saw these developments through the results of our 2022 Digital Wealth research showing that with open banking enabling a fifth generation of digital wealth fintech start-ups, alongside the ongoing digital transformation of financial services, product providers, super funds and wealth managers are looking for better ways to engage with their users.
“This marks an important milestone for our business. We believe it’s a compelling combination of deep quantitative analysis and digital strategy which can drive the transformation of wealth management through technology,” says Peter Worn, Joint Managing Director of Finura Group.
“Investment Trends approach has always been to evolve our research to meet the changing needs of our clients and to keep ahead of the rapid evolution in the wealth technology space. Working with Finura Insights means that for both Investment Trends and Finura clients, we will deliver the best fusion of research and innovation in the technology space.” says Sarah Brennan, CEO at Investment Trends.