The case for going paperless is in the numbers. Eight trees and over 2,000 kilowatts of energy (producing 6,000kg of carbon) are required to produce 100,000 sheets of paper.¹ This impact is substantially reduced through recycling, but let’s face it, most of your clients are not throwing their account statements into the recycle bin. When such paper is eventually discarded, the paper sent to landfills decomposes and produces methane gas, which has 21 times greater heat-trapping properties than carbon.²

Electronic delivery of monthly statements and other related account documents to clients is not only environmentally friendly, but it represents a higher level of client service through quicker delivery, easier record storage, increased security and the ability to view from anywhere. Moreover, it’s an immediate way for clients to eliminate the charges associated with receiving account-related paper mailings.

American Portfolios is committed to the best client e-delivery client experience, and has implemented a comprehensive, simplified process to the e-delivery client registration set-up.

Getting Clients to Sign Up for E-delivery

The primary obstacles to converting paper delivery to electronic delivery are simple inertia and the comfort level most (generally older) people have with paper. Some clients may act to sign up on the basis of an e-mail invitation, but most will require a nudge from their advisor to make the move to e-delivery.

Advisors needn’t make e-delivery sign-up a central communication effort, but they should think about how they can include the e-delivery message in other client interactions. For instance, consider bringing up e-delivery at the end of every client quarterly review. “Mrs. Client, I see you’re not yet signed up for e-delivery.” Run through the benefits of going paperless and end with “If you’re interested in going paperless, I can have my assistant walk you through that simple process now. It takes less than two minutes.”

On a behavioral theory aside, studies have shown that one of the more effective messages for taking action is to combine the social benefit of the action with how their peers are behaving. For example, “We’ve doubled the number of clients on e-delivery in the last two weeks.” People tend to follow what others are doing.

Consider other ways to promote going paperless: a message on your Web site and at the bottom of your blog articles, or at the conclusion of a client call.

If advisors are interested in exhibiting their social consciousness, they may want to offer clients an incentive, such as a monetary donation to a local charity for every client who signs up for e-delivery before a prescribed deadline.

Sources:

1. https://www.goodenergy.co.uk/good-stats-on-carbon-saving/
2. https://www.paperrecyclingcoalition.com/policyissues/how-recycling-paper-fights-global-warming/

Please reference disclosures: https://blog-dev.americanportfolios.com/disclosures/