Personal Finance Portal: communicate securely, increased flexibility and lower carbon footprint
Advances in technology have enabled clients to be able to view finances whenever and wherever suits them. Here, Mundia Oluda introduces Castlefield's Personal Finance Portal - our revolutionary app that delivers all this plus a lower carbon footprint as well.
Having worked in the financial industry since I left university a decade ago, I have found that for such a forward-thinking and innovative sector, the way many businesses communicate with clients is quite low-tech.
In the past couple of years, Castlefield has invested in technology to improve in that regard. The introduction of Castlefield’s Personal Finance Portal (PFP) has presented a massive opportunity to serve our profession and clients better, by ensuring clients are well informed with regards to their investments at any time, from any device. Its launch has also delivered considerable environmental improvements too. The use of the PFP to send on clients’ valuation reports, review reports and brochures has significantly reduced the amount of paper sent to each client, meaning we have saved the CO2 equivalent of 340,000 plastic bags.[1]
PFP is quite a revolutionary app as it gives clients the ability to view all of their finances in one place from any mobile or web device, so they can see their fund information and financial portfolio at the click of a button. As an online app, it’s available 24/7 so there’s also the total flexibility that clients can access their finances at any time to suit them.
There are several other benefits for clients using PFP including:
- A secure platform to communicate and share information with their adviser, rather than via email which can be much less secure.
- Enables clients to view the value of their investments in real time whenever they need it 24/7.
- Update their information ready for reviews, ensuring that the discussions with their financial adviser can be spent talking about providing solutions and not updating financial information.
- A way to receive important documents in a fast and compliant way.
- Fewer emails and printed paper also means a lower carbon footprint too. The average CO2 equivalent for an email is 4g (0.14oz) CO2e (which increases dramatically if it includes an attachment of a pdf report – to 50g CO2e). A quote from the Pakistan Climate Change Minister, Sherry Rehman, during the recent UN Conference of the Parties (COP 27) in Egypt struck a chord with me. She said: "We have struggled for 30 years on this path and today in Sharm el-Sheikh this journey has achieved its first positive milestone ... It is a downpayment and investment in climate justice." [2]
As a values-based organisation with a mission of ‘gathering assets to do good’, we encourage all clients to take this journey with the Castlefield team as we help to reduce the harmful impact on our precious environment. We believe that even one small change can make a difference.
Hopefully this investment in digital communications and reducing our collective carbon footprint is replicated by other providers and signifies the start of things to come in the wider wealth management sector.
If you aren't signed up to the PFP and would like to, and/or you would like some help using the system, you can request this by emailing pfphelp@castlefield.com
[1]. Data taken from Mike Berners-Lee 2020 Edition of How Bad are Bananas.