This week, Docupace’s turn-key Advisor Transitions Program hit a milestone it has been building to since its launch in 2017.
The California-based fintech focused on helping financial professionals on the move “re-paper” all client accounts at one time has successfully transitioned more than 500,000 clients for advisors going to new wealth management providers.
Docupace
Docupace CEO and industry veteran David Knoch, who joined the company in 2020 after stepping down as president of Blucora’s Tax Smart Institute, said he is honored that so many advisors have trusted his team to guide them through one of the biggest business decisions they’ll ever make.
He adds that the most satisfying part of hitting the milestone has little to do with the power of the platform or the sophisticated tech under the hood. It’s the peace of mind and sense of calm that comes with each successful transition.
“Something that I think gets missed around our transition solution (is that) this gets looked at through a technology lens. I realize that comes from the fact that we are a technology organization and technology is what creates scale in this process,” Knoch told Financial Planning. “But the part about this that I think is missed, which I think is the most valuable part of this, is the human consulting or concierge service that goes along with this transition.
“The promise the advisor made to (their client) about why this would be better on the other side probably came true. And we did that a half a million times. That’s awesome. To me that’s the exciting part of this, just thinking about the very real human impact this likely had.”
Since its inception in 2017, the Advisor Transitions Program from Docupace has executed more than 1,300 financial advisor transitions. The company says six of the top 16 independent broker-dealers in America leverage this program to bring new advisors and firms into their communities.
Knoch, who has more than a decade of experience running an independent broker-dealer to pull from, says the impact of such a resource cannot be understated. Knoch spent more than 18 years with 1st Global, a tax-focused IBD.
He served as the firm’s president from 2008 until its sale to Blucora in 2019. Under his leadership, Knoch increased assets under management by 154% and grew revenue and profitability margins by more than 50%.
“I had a first-hand view of the impact on clients when financial advisors transitions took too long. Clients lose access to their money. If you’re in a tough market environment like we are today, you don’t want clients separated from their accounts for too long, and you don’t want to put financial advisors in the position of not being able to earn income for very long,” he said. “I think clients deserve something far easier than our industry tends to give them around transitions. So for us this represents a lot of people who’ve been able to stay in the market and stay close to their financial advisor without having anxiety and being worried about market volatility because their account got transitioned quickly.”
Knoch said the process to “re-paper” client accounts during a move can increase stress levels for advisors and clients alike. It is critical the appropriate sequence of steps is followed, and SEC/ FINRA regulations mean an advisor’s new firm cannot have access to client information until their affiliation is complete.
Completing new account documentation has historically been a manual, labor-intensive process that can cause disruption to the advisor’s business and client relationships. Knoch said Docupace’s process blends electronic document delivery, eSignature and white-glove service to digitize and streamline the move.
He added that the additional time granted to wealth managers as the result of this simplified process means more time can be spent connecting with clients and doing high-quality work.
According to Docupace, transitions commonly take as long as six months or more to complete. But Docupace touts its ability to transition 68% of client accounts in 30 days or less. Roughly 93% of transitions handled by Docupace in 2021 were completed within 60 days, officials said.
For Knoch, that speed is more than an impressive statistic to share. It also speaks to the human-centric nature of their solution.
And while proprietary technology behind Docupace’s transitions program expedites things, Knoch considers the team of in-house transition specialists who power the program the “secret sauce” that makes it all work.
Team members serve as expert guides, sounding boards and stress relievers throughout the transition process, giving time back to advisors and providing emotional support. Knoch recalled being in Docupace’s Des Moines, Iowa, office and overhearing a late-day conversation between an advisor and a transition specialist that exemplifies that.
“I hear the transition person say to the financial advisor that they’re talking to, ‘I know this is a really stressful time for you. I’m here to make sure this goes well. When we hang up the phone, go have a glass of wine with your wife. When you come back in the morning, I’m going to have everything put together for you,’” Knoch said. “You know how good it made that person feel to know that someone had their back in that environment?
That’s not a technology solution. That’s a human solution … and we’ve seen a half million times that the human piece is what matters.”
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