As a financial advisory firm navigating the complexities of the insurance landscape, Planning Pros faced unique challenges brought about by stringent regulatory demands. From processing client applications to managing month-end checklists, the need for a streamlined, secure, and compliance-driven system was vital. This was where Process Street turned the tide for them.
The Challenge:
Regulatory Compliance:
Operating in a non-prescriptive regulatory environment required exhaustive documentation and adherence. Process Street offered a comprehensive, automated solution that ensured every compliance task was accounted for.
Efficiency in Client Onboarding:
Manual onboarding processes were error-prone and labor-intensive. With Process Street, these processes were streamlined, significantly reducing time spent by all team members.
Remote Operations:
Coordinating tasks across different time zones was complex and inefficient. Process Street’s features supported asynchronous workflows, simplifying operations.
“When you operate in an industry where compliance is non-negotiable, having a robust system in place is crucial,” said Nicki Kane, Owner, Financial Advisor, and Director at Planning Pros. “Before Process Street, the risk of overlooking minor but critical compliance steps was a source of constant concern.”
A Game-Changing Solution:
Nicki remembers discovering Process Street during a Google search while seeking solutions to automate and safeguard her business operations. “It quickly became apparent that it was more than just a digital checklist; it was the missing piece in our compliance puzzle.”
Realizing its potential, Nicki implemented Process Street for various processes, significantly enhancing her firm’s ability to meet regulatory requirements. “Previously, we spent copious hours ensuring every compliance checkbox was ticked. With Process Street, these processes are automated, reducing our manual workload dramatically, but most importantly making sure that every file is finalized to the same high standard every single time, regardless of who does it.”
The killer feature: workflows cannot close with incomplete mandatory fields. Every file meets the same standard, regardless of who handles it.
What are your favorite Process Street features?
“Gamifying is always my friend. The automations and integrations: if I can do one thing and three other things happen as a result, that’s a cool outcome. That’s my happy place.I really love all of the features. I love the way that if I want to do something, I can. I don’t remember the last time I had to do a workaround with Process Street. I don’t need a workaround. Process Street just works.”
Empowering Small Teams
With a team that operates remotely, including a virtual assistant based in the Philippines, the need for a platform that supported asynchronous work was must-have. “Process Street allows us to collaborate efficiently, irrespective of time zones. This flexibility is vital for our small team operations.”
Nicki championed the versatility of Process Street, especially for sole advisors combating the tide of compliance challenges. “The system’s consistent reliability and ease of updating workflows ensures we’re always on top of changes in regulations. It also means that we have the option to automatically update any in-progress workflows to reflect changing processes or regulation requirements.”
Feedback-Driven Development
Nicki praised the user-friendly support and the capacity of Process Street to adapt to her firm’s evolving needs. “The support team, particularly Brenda, has been exceptional from day one. Updates are pushed live with ease, allowing us to maintain compliance without losing momentum.”
Planning Pros Uses Process Street For:
- Client onboarding and application processing
- Claims management and processing
- Month-end compliance and financial checklists
- Regulatory compliance tracking and reporting
Benefits Realized with Process Street:
- Drastically reduced client onboarding time
- Annual savings of over $20,000 through automated processes
- Enhanced regulatory compliance and reduced operational risk
- Streamlined processes across remote and asynchronous teams.
New Client Onboarding: A Seamless Transition
Onboarding new clients in a heavily regulated environment meant risks were always high, and initially, manual processes heightened the risk. “We were at the mercy of error-prone workflows,” Nicki recalled. “Now, with Process Street, all necessary compliance steps are automatically integrated into our onboarding procedure, minimizing our margin of error.”
The time savings were phenomenal. Where onboarding processes would previously consume several hours spread across days, they could now be finalized in just a few hours. “We’ve cut onboarding time hugely, which allows me to invest more time into client acquisition and then having higher quality discussions with them.” Nicki noted.
Automation: The Key to Efficiency
Nicki emphasized the role of automations in boosting her firm’s productivity. “Automating tasks such as sending client forms and reminders ensures consistency and reliability. We estimate these automations alone save us around $20,000 annually, a significant sum for a boutique advisory firm.”
Process Street’s integration capabilities also played a crucial role. “By syncing with Google Sheets, we seamlessly track critical client data without redundancy. This not only mitigates compliance risks but also frees up time for more strategic tasks.”
The Results: 80% Time Reduction, $20,000+ Annual Savings
Planning Pros’ adoption of Process Street was not just a tactical move; it became a strategic asset that aligned operations with compliance demands while significantly enhancing efficiency.
By implementing Process Street, Planning Pros can ensure that all regulatory checks are met while simultaneously reducing workload and cost. This case study highlights how Process Street can effectively equip financial advisories in the insurance sector to navigate the profound challenges of comprehensive compliance seamlessly. For Nicki Kane and her team, it’s more than just a tool; it’s an integral component of their compliant and efficient business model- and one that they can’t imagine being without.
The impact was immediate and measurable:
- Client onboarding time cut from days to hours, roughly an 80% reduction
- Annual savings exceeding $20,000 through automation alone
- Year-end compliance reporting reduced from full days to 5 minutes
- Claims processing time cut by 30 minutes per claim, saving 30% in contractor costs
- Zero compliance violations with complete audit trails
“By the time we close off our workflow, there is literally nothing that is not done.”
In an industry where one compliance miss can destroy generational wealth, Planning Pros’s systematic approach has created unshakeable confidence.
As Nicki puts it: “By the time we close off our workflow, there is literally nothing that is not done.”
Process Street transformed what began as “checklists on steroids” into the infrastructure that makes regulatory compliance operationally viable. In highly regulated environments, it’s the foundation that determines whether independent firms can continue operating.
The alternative isn’t inefficiency. It’s non-existence.
Process Street: The difference between surviving & thriving.
Cut workflow time in half without missing any compliance steps that threaten your firm’s viability.
Note: Our solution is powered by AWS and uses these AWS services: Amazon Bedrock, Lambda, SQS, API Gateway, S3, CloudFront, Elastic Beanstalk, WAF, ELB, RDS Multi-AZ, EC2 and ElastiCache for Redis. Process Street serves as the intelligent orchestration layer, where AWS AI services power the advanced reasoning and data processing that turns policies into workflows, and then enables workflow automations, intelligent document processing, and reasoning. Specifically, ProcessStreet’s GenAI capabilities are used to ensure that customers’ policies align with their workflows and that change governance mechanisms control how tasks are updated to achieve compliance in an automated manner. This creates a closed-loop system where AI directly triggers and guides actionable workflows