{"id":4268075,"date":"2021-08-26T18:46:49","date_gmt":"2021-08-26T16:46:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.deptagency.com\/case\/transforming-the-future-of-financial-planning\/"},"modified":"2025-12-08T11:12:54","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T09:12:54","slug":"transforming-the-future-of-financial-planning","status":"publish","type":"case","link":"https:\/\/www.deptagency.com\/en-au\/case\/transforming-the-future-of-financial-planning\/","title":{"rendered":"Transforming the future of financial planning"},"content":{"rendered":"
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eMoney Advisor<\/a>\u00a0provides technology solutions and services that help people talk about money.\u00a0Rooted in comprehensive financial planning, eMoney\u2019s solutions strengthen client relationships, streamline business operations, enhance business development and drive overall growth.\u00a0

To date, more than 75,000 financial professionals across firms of all sizes use the eMoney platform to serve more than 4 million households in the U.S.\u00a0\t<\/p><\/div>\n\n
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\n\t\n\t\tWealth management and financial planning services have rapidly grown since the 2008 financial crisis, and the industry continues to evolve. While traditional financial planning services have been designed to serve older, wealthier audiences, the demand for planning among Gen X, Y and Z, and other socio-economic demographics, has never been higher.\u00a0

eMoney recognized that in order to drive sustainability and growth, they needed to develop solutions to help financial professionals serve a more diverse audience who could benefit from financial planning services. \t<\/p><\/div>\n\n
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\n\t\t\n\t\tConnecting a new audience to financial planning\t<\/h2>\n\t\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\tDEPT\u00ae assisted eMoney in bringing the idea of attracting younger clients to advisory relationships to life. We kicked off the project with intense ethnographic research to uncover the best opportunities to reach these new audiences. We interviewed millennials to understand their financial goals, needs and challenges, and to identify their perceptions and interactions with money. The research showed that younger generations shop for financial advice like any other consumer good. They do online research, talk to friends and use a variety of self-service apps. We also learned that there was an opportunity to teach younger generations how to better manage their money.\u00a0

It was also clear in the research that millennials will require greater control, access and adaptability as they evaluate the benefits of a financial advisor. We saw a future where higher volume, lighter touch engagements with personalization would take the place of the annual check-in with your advisor. Advisors would need to meet these new clients where they are.\u00a0

We distilled these observations into insights, potential opportunities and eventually idea creation. Together with eMoney, we came up with five concepts that could harness the opportunity to fill this gap in the market. We then kicked off a series of\u00a0design sprints<\/a>. Design sprints are typically a five-day process for answering critical product questions through design, prototyping and testing ideas with customers. Through a design sprint, we built out prototypes for the eMoney concepts and tested them with real users. It became clear that users gravitated towards one of the concepts more than others, which was a mobile app that could provide financial wellness advice and complement the existing eMoney software-as-a-service platform. This was the beginning of what became eMoney Incentive.

Additionally, and perhaps most notably, we learned throughout testing and development that Incentive appealed to a wider audience beyond millennials.\t<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n\t