OnBord with Nick Bernardo | E260

Account opening made easy.

In today's episode of the Fintech impact, Jason is going to talk to Nicholas Bernardo, Founder & CEO of OnBord; a simple, secure tool with automated compliance features that will save you time and money while onboarding new clients. OnBord is built to streamline the new client experience for not only the advisors but also their clients.

Episode Highlights

  • 1.09: OnBord is really one of the only technologies that will actually interact with the end client on behalf of the advisor as a white-label solution to gather information needed to open accounts or start private investments. Get it to CRM and then push it through DocuSign in a very simple experience for both the advisor and the client. 

  • 03.02: Nick talks about his profile and what prompted him to launch OnBord. He also talks about how simple the tool is and the feedback that he has received from few of his clients. 

  • 05.32: Jason and Nick talk about the inconvenience caused during manual data filing or data gathering process. 

  • 06.17: Nick explains how they have created the ability to do a bulk transfer. Now they are working to eliminate that custodial spreadsheet so that if you are an advisor looking to leave a wire house or leave a broker-dealer that's protocol or non-protocol you have all kinds of limitations around what you can take. 

  • 7.18: Nick talks about their data gathering process and how they don't actually hold any of the client data. 

  • 08.03: Talking about OnBord there are two basic options. He explains that once you go in as the advisor into the OnBord platform, it's a white label platform, so all your branding exists. So that end customer is going to feel very comfortable that they are communicating with you. 

  • 09.32: Nick explains OnBord's entire work process flow and how it is all automated.

  • 11.04: Nick explains once the client completes the flow, they also receive an e-mail from the firm, welcoming them again, stating kind functions of the CSA and then also putting out the e-mail as disclosure documents that way that is one step that the CSA team has to do. 

  • 13.10: Nick explains how they are currently working on the KYC module right now so that they can update that and push it right back to the advisor's CRM. 

  • 15.45: If you kind of said average household has five new accounts, and then features and functions, about an hour and a half are easily the man hours on just the advisor side to go into getting the data from the client putting it all into the CRM, holding it on the DocuSign, populating all the features and functions and moving through it, that process by using OnBord is probably less than 10 minutes. 

  • 18.20: Nick explains how OnBord shows real time status of clients filling in their information and how it helps to save a lot of time and efforts. 

  • 20.00: Nick explains how they are not sending a lengthy form, the tool is well compatible for mobile users. It's screen by screen, question by question, simple flow. He says they are not inundating that user with some big form that is inside of mobile is going to be impossible to read or just create a confusion.

  • 21.53: You think about some of these real estate companies or venture companies that are raising capital once every three years, they don't have the manpower to go and document their new subscriber's information while they are raising money, while they are trying to put money to work, make investments and probably managing a fund that they are trying to shut down on the back end. So, the private world is an area that we are about to break into, says Nick. 

  • 23.05: Features and functions we have an unbelievably long list of features and functions that. We want to put out there, but right now it's about solving the core problem right and showing the most value to the same, says Nick. 

  • 26.48: Nick explains why the Fintech industry needs better technology. He says that in the Fintech industry there are so many big firms, that have people building technology that never sat across the desk from the client and that's the biggest hang-up that they face as an industry.

  • 31.00: OnBord is a core technology for almost every RA in the in the country and maybe even in the world.

3 Key Points

  1. Nick talks about how well OnBord uses automation to create great user experience. He says that they are not asking them complicated questions, they are asking the minimum amount of information that the custodian wants in order to open their account.

  2. Nick explains how they leverage text as a means of engagement of the consumers.

  3. Any business that gets new clients and needs information to get from the client to their database and potentially you know signed off on a form, that's our opportunity, says Nick.

Tweetable Quotes

  • "When you talk about moving between broker dealers or to an IRA doing a migration. You know, as someone who has been through that, it is bloody painful. And the irony is that we already have all the data we need, but still the countless hours that it took to prepare all that, that, that, that documentation, like, just brutal." – Jason

  • "From an advisor's internal CSA perspective that that was the genesis or the starting block to build that household once you click submit on that. Few things happen we are automatically generating that new client in the advisors CRM. So, the advisor didn't have to touch their CRM to add you in as a new client, new household." - Nick 

  • "We are looking to make use technologies to flatten this whole experience out and that way the advisor and CSA, all they have to do is manage the process." - Nick 

  • "If you are a broker dealer and you need to update KYC on an annual basis, we'll be able to administrate the entire process for you." – Nick

  • "Getting people's attention via text message and a reminder say hey by the way we need to get this done it. We're finding that you know response times are faster." - Nick

Resources Mentioned

Fintech ImpactJason PereiraFintech