Elevate Your
Tech Stack

Sixteen years ago, our operations department looked like a standard office—walls of file cabinets, copiers, printers, fax machines, mailing materials, paper checklists.

Today, all these technologies are antiquated, and, in Potomac’s case, so is an actual office.

We’re not going to make this about the pandemic (enough already), but the year 2020 demanded the need for digital onboarding solutions. This is the era of digitalization. While the transition can be daunting, if you’re not advancing with the pace of technology, you’re being left behind.

A company that still requires manual tasks and procedures to operate, is a company not utilizing their time efficiently; and I guarantee highly suspect it’s taking away from potential new business.

Yes, Potomac no longer require papers, printers, or fax machines. Instead, we have a suite of online tools at our disposal. A well-thought-out tech stack has become foundational—curtailing misused time, money, and energy.

Now, while there are a plethora of tech stack options available to streamline your operations department, the challenge is: there are a plethora of tech stack options available to streamline your operations department. How do you even start?

Ask yourself where the roadblocks are in productivity. Are you continuously looking for the same documents? Does it influence an advisor’s overall experience? Are you in dire need of an investor portal face-lift? For us, it was a combination of those questions (and more).

We knew we needed to deliver one thing above all else: convenience.

So, what did we do? We used a software that allowed us to package every piece of necessary information for both the advisor and the investor into one place: a unified portal.

Every financial aspect of an end-investor—their cash, investments, credit, and loans—is aggregated into one spot. Not only does this help the investor see their whole financial picture, but they also have direct access to their outside accounts (credit cards, mortgages, banks, etc.). One portal. One login.

This not only keeps the advisor aware of their end-investors information; it affords the ability to plan for their future. An advisor can input an investor’s financial goals (purchasing a home, planning a wedding, retirement, etc.), which allows investors to see their progress every damn day.

While the investor sees this as an opportunity to review individual investments, keep track of performance, and visualize how their plans are stacking up to their goals, the advisor sees this as a streamlined solution to keep investors on track, while being provided a clear overview of their business–including their total AUM summary and Portfolio Allocation.

Beyond financial organization, the investor/advisor portal also features a document vault. The investor/advisor portal provides one place for all documents; advisors can upload documents in a secure folder for the investor, and the investor can sign or add any required information instantaneously. In a sea of incoming emails, documents can quickly become overlooked. The vault removes that worry while replacing it with an effortless and secure process.

The era of digitalization is a case of eliminating frivolousness. Your tech stack can and should replace the manual parts of operations, leaving you with more room to focus on the overall business.

The right software will minimize monotonous tasks and revolutionize the way you operate. People who can get anything they want online—a car, apartment, dinner, even Ladybugs (apparently)—will expect to operate an investment account the same way.

Operations should always come back to strengthening the advisor/investor experience—that’s the end goal.

If you’re not a part of the new digital age of operations, I’m afraid you’ll end up in the rearview.