The complete picture
“Ten years ago, at Yellowtail Conclusion, we already operated on the belief that holistic financial insight is essential for helping people make sound financial choices. Only with the full financial picture can you assess situations accurately. Even better, you can create financial scenarios. What happens if I retire early? When is the best time for me to buy a house? When you can foresee the impact of your decisions, you can make informed financial steps.”
Data and computing power
“We’ve made that vision a reality. In recent years, we’ve found ways to securely gather all the data needed to create a holistic financial picture of an individual from the relevant sources, such as the tax office, UWV, and banks. Each source has its own definitions, and it was quite a challenge to align them. We also needed tools that understood how the Dutch financial system works. We found those with Ortec Finance. We combined this data with AI-powered calculations to create an innovative system that can calculate the best financial scenarios for a consumer, based on all their asset components.”
Every step correct
“A strong AI innovation alone is not enough. Risk management is equally important when developing a new system. Are the risks throughout the chain acceptable? How do we prevent taking unknown risks? Quality is a fundamental aspect of this system. Is the right data being used in the AI tools? Does any data need to be cleaned? Is the business logic on the data correct? Step by step, we’ve improved the quality of the data, ensuring that the AI tool uses the right data and that the calculation method is accurate. We still perform shadow calculations and sanity checks to ensure that the system is doing what it’s supposed to do. All of this ensures that every step in the process is correct. Only then can we guarantee that the consumer receives the right advice.”
The customer determines success
“Then there’s a third aspect: the customer experience. You can have your data, business logic, and risk management in perfect order, but if the customer can’t or won’t use the tool you’ve developed, it’s still not going to work. At Yellowtail Conclusion, we have excellent UX experts who focus daily on user experiences. These users can be both consumers and advisors. For consumers, for example, as an execution-only tool for mortgages, and for mortgage advisors, there’s Hypact Advisor software, a sophisticated all-in-one solution for mortgage advice and brokerage.”
Personalization in decision-making guidance
“The combination of AI innovation, risk management, and customer experience is also highly relevant with the new pension system. The Future of Pensions Act imposes strict requirements on pension funds and administrators to provide guidance to their participants in making decisions. Yellowtail Conclusion’s PensioenSuite offers pension funds and administrators the ability to quickly and affordably launch a complete pension website, portal, or planner. Here too, personalization is key, allowing participants to make the best choices for their pension based on a holistic financial picture. A significant portion of pension funds and administrators is not yet at the stage where their participants can make decisions beyond their own scheme. That’s why the PensioenSuite is modular and can be integrated step by step, working towards that holistic picture over time.”
It’s AI ‘plus’
“Because the decisions people have to make about their pensions are so crucial for them, high-quality UX in decision-making tools is extra important. YellowLab, a part of Yellowtail Conclusion, explores the digital customer journey within tools by conducting qualitative user research and usability testing on the comprehensibility, accessibility, and user-friendliness of the tools used by pension funds or administrators. It’s a cycle of measuring, improving, and measuring again. This leads to tools that genuinely help consumers make financial decisions. AI alone is not the ‘magic bullet.’ It’s about combining AI innovation with solid risk management and the right user experience. Together, these three elements lead to that holistic financial insight, enabling people to make sound financial decisions. It’s a long and careful process.”
