Rogers Group Financial (RGF) is a Vancouver-based financial advisory firm founded in 1973.
Since its inception, RGF has grown to over 50 people and has become one of Canada’s most respected independent financial advisory firms.
Guided by a commitment to independent, professional advice and comprehensive, long-term planning, RGF has built a client offering that is anchored in trust.
“Trust is a very important driver of our long-term success,” according to Clay Gillespie, Managing Director of RGF. “At our firm, 95 percent of our clients come from referrals. The only way you’re going to get referrals is to keep your existing clients happy and trust is a major part of that.” [Source]
Challenges
As part of its commitment to delivering a holistic financial advisory service, RGF has always placed a high priority on delivering accurate, up-to-date information to its clients.
As technology evolved over the decades, RGF was often at the forefront of the financial advisory industry in customized software tools and database solutions to meet its exacting client service requirements.
However, these solutions were often built on platforms that were never designed to do what RGF needed done. And custom software often meant depending on a single individual for support.
Eventually, RGF outgrew the custom software solutions and the individuals that created and supported them. They needed a more stable and scalable solution that ensured the data they relied on to serve their clients was accessible when and how they needed it.
The Ticoon Solution
“We previously did not have a solution to allow clients to view their complete portfolio, so the consumer portal offered by Ticoon is a big win.”
Ticoon began working with RGF in 2005. For RGF, the Ticoon solution brought much needed stability and accountability to the software development process, as well as a number of features and functionality that RGF has come to rely on.
Barb Simpson is the Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer for RGF. When asked what she likes most about the Ticoon system, her answers are unequivocal:
- Accessibility – Ticoon offers a cloud-based software solution. “We are not limited to using the software only in the office or via a terminal server,” says Simpson. This is increasingly important in a world where work is not only done in the office, but also from home and on mobile devices in the field.
- Advisor and consumer portal – “We previously did not have a solution to allow clients to view their complete portfolio, so the consumer portal offered by Ticoon is a big win,” Simpson says. “Clients can self-serve to get all their information and account details, including financial asset holdings and insurance policies. They can also see all of their pre-authorized payments for cash planning purposes. They don’t need to call us for this information.”
- Data feeds – “We appreciate the ability to take data feeds from different sources and load them into a single database for a consolidated view of our client's assets.” Ticoon brings together automated nightly data feeds for a number of securities, mutual funds and other investment holdings of RGF’s clients. This saves the firm a lot of time while creating a consolidated view of the client’s financial position, Simpson says.
Data Consolidation is a Huge Benefit
While RGF cites numerous advantages of using the Ticoon platform, there is one benefit that trumps all the rest: consolidation of data.
“Ticoon’s vision of data consolidation aligns with ours,” Simpson says. By having one platform that their clients, advisors and business leaders can all use, Simpson feels RGF can deliver superior service to their clients. In addition to the self-serve benefits for clients and the comprehensive financial planning perspective it affords advisors, data can be easily extracted from the Ticoon system for external analysis. This gives RGF intelligence about their business operations that few firms of their size possess.
Even the regulators approve of the way Ticoon produces consolidated reporting for RGF’s clients. Concerned with potential for consolidated reporting to be misunderstood by clients, Simpson says the regulators are satisfied with the audit trail and appropriate disclosures that are built into Ticoon’s platform.
Staying Competitive
Simpson recognizes that even though the number of RGF clients that are accessing their account details and holdings online is a minority, the demand is trending upward. And for the clients demanding self-serve access to their financial holdings today, Ticoon offers RGF an affordable way to remain competitive with their largest institutional competitors by offering the online services that their clients have come to expect.
And this creates more opportunities for RGF to do what they do best: focus on building trust and delivering an exceptional service experience for their clients.
For more information on Rogers Group Financial, go to http://www.rogersgroup.com/.
To reach Barb Simpson, go to http://ca.linkedin.com/pub/barbara-simpson/34/73b/a88.