MM Meets – Tech visionary Ben Goss

“How can we reduce our own emissions? That’s a work in progress.”

Before we even sit down for this interview, Dynamic Planner chief executive Ben Goss and I launch into a discussion about the tech firm’s carbon-cutting ambitions.

Most of the work the company has done so far has been towards reducing Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions — that is, the energy it uses to run the business and create its products.

“We got to carbon neutral two years ago,” says Goss.

You can’t operate an advice business without financial planning technology. The economics don’t work

“Now we’re looking at how we can help get the emissions of people who are using our products down.”

One of the ways Dynamic Planner is doing this is through its hybrid programme, Client Access, which went live in March this year.

Client Access is an interactive technology system designed to help advisers drive deeper client engagement and relationships in the new world of flexible and hybrid financial advice.

Advisers can choose which questionnaires clients receive. Once captured, the information flows back into Dynamic Planner to support the profiling, cashflow and review processes.

“Essentially, advisers can invite their clients to complete aspects of the financial planning process on their mobile, home [desktop] or laptop,” says Goss.

The idea you can use economies of scale, because you’re a bigger firm, to invest in better technology and better customer experiences is very powerful

“That, we know, is a huge time saver. But it also means you can collaborate with clients in a way you just couldn’t before.

“We see that as being beneficial for the advice firm, the advice process and the client.”

Goss adds: “But one of the positive by-products is people need to travel less. And that’s a good thing for the environment.”

Intellectual roots

Goss has always had a passion for the environment. He studied environmental science and geography at the University of Bradford.

“I’ve always had an interest in the world around me,” he says. “And I’ve always had an interest in geography. We were talking about something called ‘Global warming’ back then [at university], in the late 1980s. Climate change, and the global warming it causes, have been known about for decades. It is only more recently the world has acted.”

After getting his bachelor’s degree, Goss went to the US to complete a master’s degree in economic geography at Indiana University.

You could double the number of clients served by firms if you used hybrid technology, where the client played a more active role

“When I came back, I worked as an analyst programmer for an insurance company, and then as a strategy consultant for Coopers & Lybrand, now PwC.

“I worked with some of the big banks and insurance companies — almost always on advised distribution, as it was called back then.”

Goss worked on the launch of Egg, which was an internet bank back in the day.

“At that time, in the mid-90s, I thought the internet was going to be a really big thing,” he says.

I try to keep a straight face.

“You can smile,” he says. “I would say to my clients, about the internet, ‘I think it’s going to be an absolute game changer for your business.’ And one client said, ‘It will be a flash in the pan.’”

As we’ve seen our technology adopted, our ambition has grown

Goss’s steadfast belief in the power of the internet led him to leave PwC in 1998 to set up the UK’s first online advice service — called Sort — with a couple of friends.

“We went to the PIA [Personal Investment Authority] — the forerunner of the Financial Services Authority, now the Financial Conduct Authority — and we told them what we wanted to do.

“We became a regulated business, and we were advising over 1,000 people a day before we sold that business to a company called mPower, which is the largest provider of online advice in the US.”

He worked as UK managing director for mPower for three years before deciding he wanted to build his own company. So he set up Dynamic Planner in 2003.

“When I was at university, I had a summer job at an asset management company. It was a friend who got me the job, and it was in a call centre,” Goss recalls.

Our long-term vision is to be serving more than half of the UK as advised customers

“The way the company worked, essentially, was to put adverts in the Sunday press and people would then phone up and we would answer the phone.

“We would give them… well, today you would call it advice. At the time, we were given a script and told to follow it.

“I was 18 or 19 — what did I know? But I’ve always looked back on that experience and thought, ‘Actually, that was not a great way for clients to invest their money.’

“There was an imbalance in information between the investment company and the consumer.”

Technological flair

As he developed his career in financial services, Goss formed a passion for using technology to create a more engaging financial planning experience for both consumers and advisers.

“If you can get that right, and so many of our clients do these days, everybody wins,” he says.

“The client gets to fund the things that are important to them — often retirement — and they get to do it in a way where they’re fully engaged with the process, they understand the risks and opportunities, and they’re taking a level of risk that’s appropriate for them.

Financial planning is lots of sub-processes and in many firms that is six or seven systems from which the client data is keyed and then rekeyed. This is prone to errors

“The adviser and the financial planning firm win because they get happy clients who stay with them and who feel they’re getting value from the process.

“And the asset managers win because they then have stable clients in long-term, risk-adjusted portfolios that are doing what they need to do in order for people to achieve the things that are important to them.

“The industry has come on in leaps and bounds. It’s completely unrecognisable from where it was in the ’80s when I was a student.”

One of the ways it has changed, says Goss, is that the use of technology is fundamental today.

“When we started, I remember an adviser — who eventually became a client — and when I showed him Dynamic Planner he held up the back of an envelope and a pen and said: ‘I don’t understand why I need this. I’ve got the back of this envelope and this pen.’

The really big opportunity is to solve the review process using end-to-end financial planning but open up a hybrid dialogue with the client

“Clearly, you just can’t operate an advice business, whether a small firm or the largest firm in the country, without financial planning technology. You can’t do it because the economics don’t work. You need productivity.

“This process of financial planning is actually lots of sub-processes: profiling the client, reviewing their portfolio, building cashflow plans and future-looking financial plans, researching, making recommendations, putting suitability reports together and reviewing the client after a year.

“Still, in many firms that is six or seven systems from which the client data is keyed and then rekeyed. This process is prone to errors. Not to mention the fact each of those systems may have a different definition of risk. So you end up with what the FCA calls miscalibration risk.”

When the Retail Distribution Review was introduced in 2012, it changed the economics of advice firms from commission to fees.

Efficient processes

“If you’re running a fee-based business — which, of course, all firms have to — it’s vital you make sure your processes are as efficient and suitable as possible,” says Goss.

“Technology has been at the forefront of enabling change in advice firms over the past 10 years, and it’s about to take another big leap forward.”

You can collaborate with clients in a way you just couldn’t before. We see that as being beneficial for the advice firm, the advice process and the client

Given the changes to the market that have already occurred and the likely future innovations, how have Dynamic Planner’s ambitions altered from when it was launched?

“The other day I was cleaning out our attic and I looked at our original business plan,” says Goss.

“It was very similar to what we say today. Our purpose is to help advisers match people with suitable portfolios through engaging financial planning.

“When we founded [the business] we called it Dynamic Planner because we wanted the process to be dynamic. We felt it could be an engaging and transparent process, in which the client could understand what was important.

“As we’ve seen our technology adopted, our ambition has grown. Our long-term vision is to be serving more than half of the UK as advised customers.

The industry has come on in leaps and bounds. It’s unrecognisable from where it was in the ’80s when I was a student

“As we get bigger, we’re able to invest more and more in both our technology and our investment services. We’ve doubled our R&D budget over the past two years and our forward-looking plan to 2025 sees us doubling it again.

“As the industry moves ever more rapidly to adopting technology for financial planning processes, we are doubling down on our investment in enabling firms that use Dynamic Planner to embrace things like hybrid financial planning and sustainability as part of the advice discussion.”

Continental ambitions

The company is not stopping with the UK. In March 2022 it appointed Christophe Ponette as managing director for Europe, to lead the company’s continental expansion (see boxout).

“Since Mifid II came in, in 2018, we have been getting inbound enquiries in continental Europe about how we, in the UK, are tackling some of the challenges that come with Mifid II regulations,” says Goss. “It became very clear the challenges advice firms and asset managers faced here were playing out across the continent.”

As for the future of the industry, he says: “Hybrid is absolutely the future. I think robo has been shown to be a limited marketplace.”

Goss argues robo advisers have struggled to acquire clients profitably while some advice firms have too many clients. He believes the Achilles heel of the industry is the review process, which takes the most time, energy and cost.

Advisers can invite their clients to complete aspects of the financial planning process on their mobile, home [desktop] or laptop

Goss asks: “If we’re gonna talk about hybrid advice, where can it make the most difference? You could double the number of clients served by firms if you used hybrid technology, where the client played a more active role.

“Around 75% of clients take an ongoing review. Firms make around three-quarters of their revenues from ongoing adviser charges. So it’s an absolutely fundamental part of the way the industry works.

“We believe the really big opportunity is to solve the review process using end-to-end financial planning but open up a hybrid dialogue with the client, so they can participate in as much or as little of that process as they or their adviser would like.”

Goss also expects consolidation to pick up in the market.

“Consolidation is running very strongly at the moment,” he says.

“There are a number of firms that have institutional backing and see the opportunities to deliver more for everybody in the value chain.

We got to carbon neutral two years ago. Now we’re looking at how we can help reduce the emissions of people who are using our products

“So the idea you can use economies of scale, because you’re a bigger firm, to invest in better technology and better customer experiences is very powerful.

“It is clearly beneficial for the client if they can get access to solutions and services in a way that represents better value for money.”

With the Consumer Duty coming down the line, Goss suggests value for money will become an increasingly important part of the financial landscape and investment in technology will be vital.

This article featured in the May 2022 edition of MM. 

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