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As digital tools reduce administrative friction, advisors gain more time for clients. Beneva’s Andrew Gardiner on how mobile technology is reshaping the advice experience
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For Andrew Gardiner, regional sales director of investment at Beneva, the story of technology in financial advice is about enhancement. As digital and mobile capabilities have improved, clients have gained greater access to information, advisors have shed administrative load, and the relationship between the two has become more responsive and efficient.
Today’s clients expect to access account information, review performance, and interact with their financial lives whenever and wherever they choose. Rather than replacing advisors, technology has expanded what advisors can deliver and how quickly they can deliver it.
“The expectations are that there has to be digital access,” says Gardiner. “Clients want the ability to go in and see what they own and how it’s performing.”
Beneva is the country's largest mutual insurance company, with 3.8 million members and over 6,500 employees dedicated to protecting people. Its caring approach founded on human values and shared by its employees is anchored in its mutualist roots. Created by the coming together of La Capitale and SSQ Insurance in 2020, the company consolidated its pan-Canadian presence through its merger with Gore Mutual in 2026. With $30.3 billion in combined assets, it stands out for its diverse offerings in group insurance, property and casualty insurance, as well as individual insurance and financial services. Its head office is located in Quebec City.
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“The real advantage of digital is scalability”
Andrew Gardiner,
Beneva
Published Jul 27, 2026
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“All they really want to know is, Do I have enough money? Do I need to invest more? Where are my risks?”
Andrew Gardiner,
Beneva
Mobility as the everyday connective tissue What mobile tools change is not only what a client can see but when and where they can see it. Gardiner points to group insurance as the clearest illustration of mobility’s value: a client at the dentist’s office can find out on the spot whether a procedure is covered. That same immediacy now runs through the investment relationship.
Clients can pull up balances, transaction histories, and statements on demand, without waiting on a phone call or a mailed document. The interaction has become continuous rather than episodic, and the advisor is present in the client’s life in more places than a quarterly meeting ever allowed.
This is also where the advisor’s reach expands. “The real advantage of digital is scalability,” Gardiner notes. Mobile platforms let an advisor communicate with an entire book at once and then layer individualized follow-up on top, so a single professional can stay meaningfully connected to far more clients than was once practical. Technology does not thin the relationship; it multiplies the number of relationships an advisor can sustain at a high standard.
The result is not simply greater access to information but a more connected advice experience. As Gardiner puts it, “You don’t know what you don’t know.” Mobile platforms make information readily available while creating more opportunities for advisors to help clients identify priorities, ask better questions, and stay focused on their long-term goals.
What the tools do for the advisor’s day For Gardiner, the value of these platforms is often found in the less visible parts of the process. Financial applications are intricate, dense with codes,
and easy to get wrong; he admits that after eight years he still occasionally misses a box on forms he handles every day. Mobile applications that validate and push clean submissions through eliminate that friction on both sides, sparing the circular back-and-forth between broker, dealer, and provider that he calls “the washing machine,” where work churns without resolving. Fewer errors mean faster turnaround and a more consistent experience for every client, every time.
The mark of a mature system is restraint in how data reaches the client. Rich information is an asset in the background and a liability in the foreground. Clients pay a professional so complexity becomes clarity. “All they really want to know is, Do I have enough money? Do I need to invest more? Where are my risks?” A platform should surface those answers, not bury them. The test is not how much it can display but how well it turns depth into a clear, mobile-ready experience.
That same instinct of letting the system do the heavy lifting so the experience stays clean is how Gardiner defines success at Beneva. Working mainly at the broker level, he measures progress by how easily a new client can be onboarded, how quickly trades execute, and whether money gets invested correctly the first time. Once an account is live, the conveniences follow on their own: statements, slips, and transaction histories on demand, and a client free to check balances whenever they wish.
Where the human element holds Technology can remove friction, speed up service, and make information easier to access, but trust is still built through responsiveness and follow-through. The strongest client relationships, Gardiner argues, are often sustained through small, consistent actions rather than grand gestures.
Trust is built and kept through everyday interactions, and the most common problem that erodes it is mundane: communication that goes unanswered. Digital tools help advisors hold to a high standard of connection between meetings. Whether through virtual interactions, digital communications, or on-demand account access, technology lets advisors maintain regular touchpoints while still delivering personalized advice when it matters most.
Technology has improved access, accelerated service, reduced friction, and given advisors more powerful tools to support their clients. At the same time, the human side of advice remains essential, particularly when clients face major decisions or periods of uncertainty.
“Money is very emotional, and a machine is not going to be able to hold someone’s hand through certain things,” he says. Talking a client out of a panicked decision, or into patience, is work a screen cannot do.
Much of the industry’s technology conversation focuses on
what clients see. Gardiner is equally interested in what they don’t see: the paperwork that never gets kicked back, the account that opens correctly the first time, the transaction that moves through without delay.
Those moments shape how clients experience advice. At Beneva, the goal is to remove as many of those points of friction as possible, leaving advisors with more time for the work clients actually remember.
Five ways mobile improves advice
Clients can access balances, statements, and transaction histories whenever they need them.
Digital communication keeps advisors connected between review meetings.
Mobile platforms help advisors reach more clients without sacrificing personalization.
Digital onboarding reduces errors and speeds up account opening and trades.
Less administration gives advisors more time for planning and client conversations.
The technology clients never notice
The best digital experiences are defined by what doesn’t go wrong.
Automated validation catches errors before paperwork is resubmitted.
Strong platforms simplify complexity into answers clients actually need.
Better workflows eliminate paperwork delays between brokers, dealers, and providers.
Smoother processes free advisors to spend more time building client relationships.
