Get Connected: Best Practices for Introducing Connections to Your Clients

With account aggregation, you can see a complete view of your entire business – including assets held away. While Connections enable you and your clients to automatically update accounts with ease, there are a few best practices all advisors should be aware of to ensure you and your clients’ connections remain successful.

Here are some tips for introducing Connections to your clients.

Adding Client Connections on the Client Website

When adding new Connections, the person who originally connects an account is responsible for maintaining that account Connection going forward. Changes to a password, or to the account itself can cause a Connection to break—so we recommend your clients add their own Connections to remove you and your staff from the maintenance process.

Below are the steps your clients must follow to successfully connect their accounts:

• Log into their portal
• Click the Organizer tab
• Select Accounts and then the +Add button to pull up a search bar
• Type the name of the institution into the search bar
• Choose the Connection from the list
  • Tip: Make sure your clients test their credentials with the institution to make sure they’re up to date before entering them on the Client Site.

Troubleshooting

While Connections are intended to make your and your clients’ lives easier, they may break occasionally. So it’s important to set expectations with clients right from the start and arm them with basic troubleshooting tools.

Being Proactive

In addition to troubleshooting, it’s also important to encourage your clients to proactively maintain their Connections. Any changes that occur within their financial institutions, like an update to their password, will not automatically transfer to their Client Site. Make sure your clients know how to regularly update their Client Site so their dashboard is always up-to-date.

Your Connections dashboard shows an up-to-date view into any existing Connection errors. This view can help you address issues with your clients even before they’re aware. We recommend reaching out to your clients to make sure they are aware of the problem and know how to resolve the error. Be on top of these errors so that you know they are taken care of and your clients aren’t dealing with a backlog of problems.

And remember, your clients should always know how to contact you if a Connection problem occurs.

Reporting a Problem

If you’re unable to correct a problem, users with an Advisor license should submit a ticket using the Report a Problem link on your Advisor Site by following the steps below:

• Log into the Advisor Site
• Click the Connections tab
• Select the Connection with an error
• Choose the Report a Problem option located at the bottom left-hand side of the screen

Our Data Services Team will respond to your ticket within one business day. Do not delete Connections after you’ve submitted a ticket. If you do, your Connection issue will not be able to be resolved.