merrill

As the investing and wealth management division of Bank of America, Merrill strives to spark meaningful conversations between clients and their Financial Advisors. In a cross-enterprise collaboration involving Business, Research, UX and Technology, I was recruited to conceptualize and design more fluid digital interactions across the platform, in several key initiatives:

INTERACTIVE WEALTH MANAGEMENT REPORTS

Financial advisors have traditionally sent high-value clients dense, printed reports each quarter that laboriously detailed every aspect of the client portfolio, but most clients aren’t reading those reports so they’re not sparking conversations. To help change this scenario, we developed a design program for an animated, infographics-driven interactive portfolio overview.

The interactive is delivered via secure message from an advisor to the client. Once logged in, the client is presented with an interactive timeline of their goals, the expected costs, and a high-level look at the funds allocated for each of them.

Clean, attractive animations transition the client from chart to chart, reinforcing relationships between the data. Any chart with a plus sign can be expanded to reveal the numbers behind the graphic: for simple data sets, fly-out cards appear, and for larger data sets, a full table opens like a drawer.

To foster conversations, we created a new “Save for Discussion” button with each new content element. Saved items can be sent to their advisor for discussions in-person or online.

Merrill clients have access to some of the best research on Wall Street but advised clients remain mostly unaware, hunting elsewhere for valuable insights. Meanwhile, financial advisors are constantly looking for relevant ways to connect with their clients in meaningful dialogue. To address these needs, our objective was to create a new digital experience that would leverage the firm’s impressive research in a more transparent and meaningful way.

Enter the Personal Research experience: Portfolio insights with interactive charts, articles and research from proprietary and third-party sources.

Content is presented in cleanly organized tiles that offer clients the ability to interact with the data, rate the usefulness of the item, or save the item for discussion with their advisor.

Machine-learning tools curate and elevate content based on user interactions. and Financial advisors have the ability to see content their clients are interacting with and to curate select tile groups to inform and encourage better conversations.

SIMPLIFIED COMMUNICATIONS

High-value clients appreciate the scale and capabilities of Merrill and its integration with Bank of America has been a bonus, but keeping track of communications from across the enterprise and their advisors can be a challenge. To address this, we created a new Communications Center that would aggregate and organize messages, alerts, account statements and e-bills into a single, sortable, feed.

We designed actionable content cards that allow clients to pay bills, create or change appointments with their advisor, or e-sign documents a seamlessly within the experience. As with other new product offerings in this initiative, clients are offered the ability to flag items for discussion with their advisor.

With a simple interaction, clients can view all flagged items Saved for Discussion from across the platform, add or remove items from the list, and send selected items to their advisor for discussion.