Bringing clients "instant access" and more flexibility, App launch reflects changing user habits.

Wealth manager Brewin Dolphin has teamed up with UK wealthtech provider Objectway to create the MyBrewin app. The firm said that the app is a natural extension of core features on its online client portal, including instant access to portfolios, asset allocation, and up-to-the-minute performance reviews. It also comes with what is now becoming de facto - facial and thumbprint recognition.

Brewin Dolphin COO Grant Parkinson said that creating the app was a response to the changing ways in which clients are choosing to access information.

“We are strategically committed to technology innovation and offering clients a superior user experience, enabling them to access their portfolios where they want and how they want,” he said. The app is available on iPhone, Apple Watch and Android-based devices.

The FTSE-250 wealth manager, with £44.1 billion in funds, has been on a digital investment mission recently signing a $35-million 10-year contract with Swiss-based tech group Avoloq to upgrade its custody and settlement system. Its app-building partner Objectway, which runs operations in the UK, Italy, Belgium, Ireland and South Africa, topped £70 million in revenues in 2018-2019 developing wealthtech tools.

A tech engagement conference in London on Tuesday highlighted how asset managers are doubling down on technology to prospect for clients in order to offer a more personalised  proposition. The overriding theme was how managers decide what data is relevant to gather and parse from clients and at what stage. The conference heard that too much time is chewed up collecting and sifting through irrelevant data.