Delegating technology management to your team: why it matters and how to pull it off

By Charesse Spiller

Every financial planning practice requires a well-rounded tech stack to run efficiently. Your firm likely leverages the following:

• Financial planning software
• Customer relationship management system
• Email
• Client portal
• Document management and processing
• Compliance archiving
• Investment or trading management tools

Firm owners usually take on the responsibility of managing their business’s technology. This could include onboarding clients to new technology, implementing new back-office systems into existing firm processes, or performing basic maintenance tasks.

At the onset of your business, it may have made sense for you to take ownership of these tasks. After all, you started your business intending to make exceptional decisions for you, your team, and your clients. Choosing the tools your firm uses is part of that equation. Additionally, most advisor software is marketed directly to firm owners, so you likely have the most exposure to the latest and greatest tools on the market.

Unfortunately, continuing to do it yourself with technology management as a firm owner creates a bottleneck in your firm. How can you get out of that loop?

Why you should delegate your firm’s technology management

There are multiple reasons why you should delegate your firm’s technology management as a firm owner.

#1: As a firm owner, you should focus on revenue-generating responsibilities that push your business forward.

Your plate is full—whether that means you’re acting in a consultant or advisor capacity, or you’re only taking care of prospect meetings and guiding the overall direction of your firm.

You don’t need a single employee dedicated to managing your firm’s tech stack, but creating a delegation plan for managing your team’s technology is a critical step in building a more scalable practice.

#2: Revenue and capacity can suffer without a technology management plan. 

For example, a firm that doesn’t have a dedicated team member or outsourced provider for technology can fall behind every time something breaks. Small technology snafus can derail everyone’s schedule.

#3: Your clients deserve a positive experience with your firm’s technology. 

Your firm is built to serve your clients. If clients have technology questions or are being onboarded to a new system, they deserve support. A dedicated team member can help these tasks go smoothly.

#4: You can avoid inefficiencies. 

By putting a team member in charge of your team’s tech stack, you’re effectively ensuring that you’ll always be leveraging new and updated features of the products you use.

Additionally, when one team member is in charge of managing your firm’s technology, you’re able to increase productivity by documenting workflows, automation, and how each tool is leveraged. This helps to avoid duplicate costs or work.

Who on your team is the best fit for managing your tech stack?

For smaller firms with a limited number of employees, I recommend that an associate or junior advisor manage the firm’s technology and workflows. This may be ideal for your team until your firm hits a period of growth, at which time the associate advisor can transition to focusing exclusively on planning or serving clients. If you’re a solopreneur, an outsourced or part-time virtual assistant can take charge of this task.

Once your firm grows, you can delegate technology management to one of the following roles:

• Operations coordinator
• Administrative or executive assistant
• A new associate or junior advisor

If your firm already has multiple advisors, it’s likely time to hire an operations assistant, director of operations, or chief of staff. Having a role dedicated to working on the business while advisors focus on growth and client service can help you to scale your firm.

Remember: The person in charge of managing your firm’s technology doesn’t have to be the decision-maker. If, as the firm owner, you still want some say in what technology your firm uses or how it’s used, that’s fine. Your operations manager can help guide you through what decisions need to be made, research tools you’ve found, and outline key pros and cons before making the decision to implement something new.

What technology-related tasks should your operations manager be responsible for?

Often, firm owners take technology for granted. You may have used the same systems for years and wonder why having someone responsible for your tech stack is necessary at this point in your business journey.

Having a list of tech-related tasks can help both you and your employee stay organized. Some tasks to consider adding to their responsibilities:

• Regularly scheduling integration checks to ensure you’re maximizing the use of each tool
• Auditing your firm’s processes annually for inefficiencies and to help further automate your workflows to increase profitability and free up capacity
• Maintaining relationships with tech vendors
• Meeting with leadership regularly to provide updates on what’s working (and what’s not)
• Acting as the primary point of contact for team members and clients when tech issues arise
• Documenting standard operating procedures
• Implementing changes as needed
• Training new team members on the firm’s tech stack

Organize a formal check-in to ensure the firm is on track

Once your team member is up and running with their new responsibilities, you need to schedule regular meetings with this person to audit the firm’s technology use and to stay in the loop as things change.

Having trouble delegating your firm’s technology management to a team member? Bringing in an outside consultant to help you get organized at the onset of this initiative can help. An operations or technology consultant can help you set up clear systems, responsibilities, and expectations for your team.

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Charesse Spiller is the founder of Level Best, a virtual process and operations consulting practice in Houston. Level Best partners exclusively with financial planners to analyze their current processes, create new systems, and implement them to seamlessly scale their business.

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