A leading US based wealth management firm faced significant challenges in onboarding high-net-worth clients, especially those with complex investment structures and diverse asset portfolios. The onboarding process was lengthy, often stretching over several weeks due to rigorous compliance checks, and manual document verification was almost always a given due to the intricate client structures that required detailed mapping. The extended duration and complexity resulted in client dissatisfaction which increased the risk of losing clients to more agile competitors. By partnering with Gradient, the firm was able to automate their complex data workflows and create a new streamlined onboarding experience for their clients.
The firm was in search of a solution that could maintain regulatory compliance, while improving the client onboarding experience. With traditional onboarding processes, wealth managers had to go through a labor-intensive and time-consuming process including:
Manually reviewing client documentation
Engaging with advisors and compliance officers where applicable
Connecting with clients on an ongoing basis just to verify information or gather necessary documentation
The AI-Driven Solution
To help improve this process, wealth managers at the firm partnered with Gradient to co-develop a new onboarding experience build on top of Gradient’s AI-powered Data Reasoning Platform. The solution was tailored to their team’s, systems’, and clients’ needs and would ultimately serve as a "compliance co-pilot" for wealth managers. By leveraging the power of AI to analyze historical data, the new onboarding experience could now leverage that data to provide custom reminders and personalized checklists - bringing a unique tailored experience to each client.
Take a look at how Gradient’s Platform was able to automate some of the most complex data workflows used in developing this solution.
Real-Time Document Verification and Entity Mapping
As clients move through the onboarding onboarding process, the “compliance co-pilot” guides and ensures advisors in real time that all required documents are collected and validated according to KYC requirements. This automated process reduced the need for compliance officers to manually review documentation, freeing them up for higher-risk cases and accelerating the onboarding process for clients. To make this possible, Gradient’s Data Reasoning Platform was trained to recognize complex structures such as personal investment companies, offshore holding companies, and other entities commonly used by high-net-worth individuals. Wealth managers were then able to identify and easily submit data from various sources to ensure that they had an accurate and comprehensive collection of data.
Interactive Compliance Assistance
Gradient was able to create an interactive co-pilot that met all compliance standards using Gradient’s Data Reasoning Platform.
Sensitive Data and Communication: Advisors were now able to easily ask questions about the client’s wealth, transaction histories, and other sensitive details that were previously challenging to dig into. By using Gradient’s Data Reasoning Platform, the verification and feedback process was instant - allowing advisors to validate client information during the initial onboarding conversation rather than waiting for a compliance officer’s review. This reduced the need for follow-up interactions and significantly shortened the onboarding process.
Institutional Knowledge: Gradient’s Platform enabled the team to leverage the firm’s historical legal and compliance knowledge. By accessing and utilizing this knowledge base, analysts were now able to get immediate answers to frequently asked compliance questions, reducing the burden on the legal and compliance teams. This meant questions could be resolved without taking up more time and resources form the team. However handling the data that’s required for this process is not easy, which is why Gradient's Data Forge was used for pre-processing, data transformation, and sampling.
KYC and AML Screening Automation
The “compliance co-pilot” is able to automate the analysis of personal information, transaction history, and adverse media screening. It can now cross-reference client information against various datasets, flagging potential discrepancies or sanctions hits - escalating to the compliance team when necessary. This not only accelerated the speed of KYC and AML checks, but also enhanced the accuracy by significantly reducing errors that could be easily overlooked by manual reviews. With Gradient’s Control System (GCS), the team could further enhance accuracy by providing direct feedback to tune and align the AI system.
The Impact
By streamlining and creating a new onboarding experience, the team saw a significant impact in performance and output.
Reduced Onboarding Time: The firm saw the average onboarding time drop by roughly 60% from 20 days to just 8 days. The automation of document verification and compliance checks played a major role in accelerating the process.
Increased Client Satisfaction: Based on customer surveys, the team was able to improve client satisfaction by 40% - stemming from reduced wait times during the client onboarding process.
Higher Conversion Rates: With a faster, smoother onboarding process, advisors reported conversion rates increased by 2-3x in the first 6 months compared to previous months.
Compliance Efficiency: By automating routine tasks, compliance officers were able to focus on more complex, high-risk cases, leading to better resource allocation and improved compliance oversight.
