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Cetera to Utilize Facial Recognition Software for Financial Advisors and Clients

Cetera Financial Group, an independent broker-dealer network, is launching a new facial recognition software named Decipher to be used by its financial advisors and their clients and potential clients.

Cetera says that the software will help its financial advisors gain deeper insights into client emotions and behavior patterns regarding financial goals, decisions and concerns on a more rapid basis than was previously possible across the industry.

“Our new facial recognition software solution represents a major step forward for the financial advice industry, and supports one of the key objectives of the DOL fiduciary rule: assisting advisors to act in their clients’ best interests,” said Robert Moore, chief executive officer of Cetera Financial Group. “As experienced advisors know, client decisions about personal finances have always been significantly influenced by emotions that clients and their loved ones may not be fully aware of, and which are frequently left unsaid.”

He added, “With our Decipher offering, financial advisors have an unprecedented opportunity to deliver an advice-centric experience that takes into account the emotional and behavioral nuances that help drive clients’ important financial decisions from the very beginning of the engagement. Decipher will not only provide our advisors with a powerful level of insight into their clients’ needs, but will enable them to translate those insights into actionable steps that directly support the achievement of clients’ financial goals.”

The software experience begins with the client or prospect watching a short, personalized video comprised of different real-life scenarios. The company says that the facial recognition technology and cloud-based artificial intelligence measure the emotional response of the person to the video and provides information on what clients feel, want and need in order to make financial decisions that support their goals. The information is then delivered to both the client/prospect and the financial advisor in separate reports.

The software will be introduced through a pilot program conducted this summer, with the rollout across the Cetera network anticipated to occur over the course of the third and fourth quarters of 2017.

Cetera Financial Group is the second-largest independent financial advisor network in the nation by number of advisors, as well as a leading provider of retail services to the investment programs of banks and credit unions. The network is comprised of Cetera Advisors, Cetera Advisor Networks, Cetera Investment Services (marketed as Cetera Financial Institutions), Cetera Financial Specialists, First Allied Securities, Girard Securities, and Summit Brokerage Services.

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