As we move into the digital age money is changing, and consequently our society is changing in a self-reinforcing cycle. What does this mean for the future of your savings, investments, debt, cash and other financial resources, and where do you go for your financial advice amongst this change.
Disrupting our Financial Future
Money sits at the heart of much of the most personal and intimate elements of our world and as it changes we feel those shifts very closely. The changes impact our daily tran
sactional reality, future investment security, and even the way in which we insure ourselves and our
possessions. We are at the digital juncture that coincides with the first time a person was offered coins instead of barter for items they wanted to trade, and like that transaction changed the world millennia ag
o so too are we on the threshold of social change.
Banks and other financial services organisations are aware of the changes on the horizon and are tryingto understand the implications for themselves and their clients. But, the financial services industry changes at a very slow pace. Consequently, much of the industry activity is considering how they can respond to the changes like your body’s immune system responds to foreign invaders. In reality this is much more like inevitable evolution as a result of disruption than it is the fending off of foreign bodies by a healthy system.
Evaluating our Options
We need to engage our financial advisors and ask them how they, and the organisation to whom they have entrusted our hard earned finances, are going to manage this time of disruption and position themselves (and our finances) for the future.
5 Questions for our financial advisors:
- Do you know about Fintech? If so, what do you know? If not…. how do I move my money to someone more informed?
- How are you responding to the opportunities for greater returns, security, and flexibility Fintech offers me as a client?
- When can I expect an evaluation of my portfolio, investments, and insurances to take advantage of new options in the market?
- Which up and coming Fintech Innovators are you tracking, and why?
- Is there anything you won’t show / aren’t showing me because of the dis-intermediation impact of Fintech? Let’s look at this options and then discuss how we can use the savings obtained to benefit both of us moving forward.
Measuring our Response
We don’t need to immediately move all of our finances into these new vehicles and options, but we do need to consider them. Evaluate the relative benefits and opportunities they offer, and then incorporate them into our financial planning. At the moment the Fintech options will carry more risk than traditional ones, but in the near future, as the tide shifts, remaining in the traditional products will be the most risky. An early partial move will make the eventual integration of the disrupted future of money a more profitable, and less painful, transition for all who have seen the shifts in the tide.