Interview with AdviceTech.LIVE Speaker Corey Westphal of Mobile Assistant
Corey Westphal
Founder & CEO of Mobile Assistant
AdvisorTech.LIVE Panel: Practice Multipliers
How did you get your start in financial services?
In 2010, after 16 years in the medical transcription industry providing a high-quality dictation solution to healthcare professionals, it was time to expand to new markets. When evaluating industries that were in need of a secure, compliant, and accurate way to document client interactions, the financial industry was at the top of our list.
Similar to physicians who require accurate documentation to ensure patient well-being, financial advisors require the same trust in their note-taking solution to protect and ensure clients’ financial well-being and fulfill compliance and regulatory requirements. It was a perfect fit and Mobile Assistant was born.
What’s something that you know now that you wish you’d known when you started your career?
I have learned over the years in the financial industry that it’s not enough to just believe in the service and value that we can bring to the advisor community. As a financial technology solution, it’s essential that we understand how to communicate the benefits related to an advisors’ workflow.
Every advisor has unique routines and processes that dictation can help with, but where Mobile Assistant fits in the workflow can be different depending on the individual advisor or team. Learning how to “listen” to advisors to understand their workflow has helped us most effectively communicate our value.
What excites you most about the financial advice profession right now?
Without a doubt, the most exciting trend I’ve seen in the financial advisory industry is the willingness of advisors to stretch their technology boundaries to incorporate new and innovative solutions to help client engagement.
Ironically, I have seen a shift in the last few years, with the introduction of robo-advisor technology, the acknowledgment in the advisor community that leveraging technology is essential to solidify the importance of the client relationship. It’s my opinion that the best financial technology solutions enable advisors to accentuate the importance of the “human touch” to financial advisory services.
Is there something your company does that you don’t think advisors know about that they should be aware of?
Templates, templates, templates.
I’m so proud that Mobile Assistant is the only voice-to-text solution to offer built-in dictation templates. Just released last year, the feedback from the advisor community on the effect of dictation templates on client meeting note documentation has been amazing.
Creating structured, detailed notes has been made simple with the introduction of the Assistant template feature included with our Talk It mobile app. What’s most exciting is the fact that our dictation templates are made exclusively for the financial industry and are customizable to fit the needs of the individual advisor.
Any words of advice for advisors looking to update their tech stack?
The most important place to start when considering new technology is to be honest about your workflow. For example, what part of your new client onboarding process is taking the most time and resources? Once you’ve identified the aspects of your workflow that are the most time demanding of you or your team, that is a great opportunity to identify and insert technology to help.
What are you looking forward to the most about attending AdviceTech.LIVE?
In this virtual environment, where person to person interaction is so restricted, we still need a way to connect. Early on in the COVID-19 pandemic, I was on a call with Adam Holt at Asset-Map, and I quote, “we may be locked down, but you can’t lock down my mind.”
That’s what I believe AdviceTechLive is all about. Helping the financial advisor community connect with some of the most brilliant minds in the financial technology industry to learn about the latest innovations available today, and even more importantly, what’s on the horizon.