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While many consumers seem to crave and almost instantly purchase the latest technology, the same can’t always be said for businesses—including those in the financial services industry. It’s prudent to be cautious, but when broker-dealers and advisors don't keep up with proven tools that help them better serve clients, time and money are quickly lost.  Financial advisors are adopting new technology

One such tool is the e-signature, which not only makes it more convenient for clients to do business with their advisors, but also eases compliance burdens. Here’s how to approach e-signature adoption in the financial services industry:

Research the different types of e-signatures. The first step in fostering adoption is getting the right e-signature solution. A simple Google search will reveal a large selection of e-signature vendors. To help narrow down your search results, divide them into the two main categories of e-signatures: independent and dependent.

  • Independent E-Signatures™ and their cryptographic information (the data used to verify the e-signatures) are permanently embedded in signed documents. This means that advisors have complete ownership and control of their documents, transparency through a comprehensive audit trail, longevity due to published standards and safety through heightened ownership and control. Because of third-party regulations and steep security needs, Independent E-Signatures™ are an ideal investment for the financial services industry.
  • Dependent e-signatures link back to the e-signature vendor for verification, and they can’t be verified offline. That’s because dependent e-signatures’ legal evidence remains stored on a vendor’s server—which also means you won’t have complete ownership and control of that evidence. They also may be based on proprietary standards and may not be valid long-term.

Prepare for any questions that may arise from your clients. Although e-signatures are convenient and easy to use, your clients and their financial advisors may not be initially comfortable with a swipe of a finger or a click of a mouse versus a traditional pen-to-paper signature.

Make sure you can answer these four questions in order to best help your clients become comfortable and confident in using e-signatures:

  • Are digital signatures legal?
  • Is my client's personal information protected?
  • How do you protect against document tampering?
  • What’s in it for me?

(Need additional resources to help you prepare? We have answers to questions regarding legality, authentication, tamper-evidence and e-signature benefits.)

Bite the bullet. By adopting SIGNiX’s FINRA/SEC-compliant digital signatures for the financial industry, you can answer the challenges of today’s economy—the need to control costs, consolidate and manage operations—while adapting to new technologies.

Try starting with a pilot program. Use the e-signature platform diligently for a few weeks, and monitor employee and/or client feedback. Then, think about what the next logical step is. Develop a policy, implement it across the company and choose an internal advocate to make sure it’s correctly carried out.

When you roll out your full-fledged e-signature adoption process, it’s important for all employees to be trained on proper usage. They need to be familiar with the software and comfortable enough to use it both internally and with clients.

After adoption, here are some of the many benefits you can expect immediately:

  • Clients can sign online on any device, anytime and anywhere.
  • Advisors can send and track documents from any device, and, with mandatory signature and other fields, NIGO transactions are reduced significantly.
  • Firms will see quicker on-boarding processes, happier clients and faster revenue growth.

Don’t miss the chance to improve your technology utilization. Now is the time to implement efficient workflows by using e-signature solutions.

 

Ready to flip the tech switch? Find out why financial advisors love e-signatures! Download our free eBook to discover the benefits of digital signatures for the financial industry.

Download our eBook "5 Reasons Financial Advisors Love Digital Signatures"

 

 

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