CONTEXT
Redesigning Client Onboarding at Wealth Management
At RBC Wealth Management, client onboarding is at the heart of operations. It's how Advisors and Associates create profiles, open accounts, and ensure KYC compliance. Yet, the onboarding process was slowing users down. Fragmented systems, manual workarounds, and unclear steps made it time-consuming and error prone, affecting both efficiency and the client experience.
We transformed a complex, time-consuming onboarding process into a clear and intuitive experience, making it easier for Advisors to set up client profiles, open investment accounts, and manage KYC information seamlessly.
The outcome: a streamlined tool that saved over 354 hours in just six months and significantly reduced errors and manual rework.
MY ROLE
OUTCOMES
354
hours saved for Advisors and Associates (over 6 months).
74
hours saved for Branch Operations.
76%
reduction in KYC reviews required annually
70%
decrease in review and approval time for Advisors and Associates
20%
adoption growth was achieved in the first 3 months—rising from 73% to 93%.
Increased Advisor and Associate satisfaction in 24% with onboarding experience.
Sharp decrease in documentation errors and manual rework.
CHALLENGES
Complex Regulatory Environment: Wealth management onboarding is bound by strict compliance, legacy processes, and deeply ingrained user habits.
Advocating for Design: The product and tech teams were initially delivery-driven, with minimal focus on user-centered design.
Changing User Behavior: Advisors and Associates were used to workarounds built into the old system, making adoption of the new experience a critical success factor.
COB APPROACH
I took a collaborative, research-driven approach to redesign the client onboarding journey, leveraging user interviews, co-creation workshops, continuous validation, and design thinking practices to stay tightly aligned with business stakeholders.
The result: a streamlined, guided experience that reduces friction, minimizes errors, and builds user confidence at every step.
You can explore different cases studies of the COB experience by clicking the links below.
01 Streamlined onboarding and maintenance Journey
02
Private Corporate Journey
03
KYC Efficiencies initiative
04 Investment Policy Statements
05 E-sign journey
The original onboarding experience at RBC Wealth Management was fragmented, inefficient, and overwhelming, especially for Advisors, Associates, and Branch Managers. Key tasks like opening accounts or reviewing approvals were buried in complex navigation, with no clear entry point or contextual guidance.
To redesign the client onboarding experience into a personalized, intuitive hub that empowers users to confidently navigate and complete onboarding workflows, reducing errors, minimizing rework, and improving overall task efficiency across roles, increasing COB adoption.
I partnered up with the UX Research team to lead in-depth interviews with 20+ users and 7 internal stakeholders, uncovering key user needs, motivations, and pain points. Together, we synthesized these insights into themes and prioritized them based on user impact and feasibility.
Key findings from the initial research:
The experience was confusing and inefficient, especially for new or occasional users. People often filled out incomplete profiles or ran into issues late in the process because the system didn’t guide them based on their specific role.
Outdated questions and unclear error messages only made things worse, leading to delays and extra work.
Users also had to repeat steps when managing related accounts, making it hard to handle client relationships smoothly. On top of that, the system lacked tools to help them work faster or see the big picture.
Below, I’ll highlight key improvements from the redesign:
We reimagined the homepage as a central hub that guides users confidently through their workflows and that includes:
Users can now easily open multiple accounts, search for clients, and initiate onboarding journeys directly from the homepage, reducing friction and speeding up core tasks.
Quick Actions for opening new accounts or searching existing clients, making core tasks fast and accessible.
Progressive Updates: As the platform evolves, users get real-time updates in a consistent space, so they’re never caught off guard by new features or changes.
Proactive Approvals & Reminders: Clear visibility into pending tasks helps users stay compliant and avoid delays.
Smart Validation: The system checks for existing client profiles early in the journey to avoid redundant or incomplete records.
A progress tracker offered real-time visibility into each stage of the process.
A completion tracker ensured compliance by confirming all required fields were filled before submission.
Dynamic field validation helped catch missing or incorrect information early.
One-click download enabled quick access to all mandatory documentation tailored to each account type.
Provides Advisor Teams with the ability to customize the welcome page clients see when completing their eSignature package sent
from COB.
IMPACT
The new COB platform has redefined how RBC Wealth Management onboards clients, boosting operational efficiency, reinforcing compliance, and strengthening client trust.
Initial adoption reached 73%, and after implementing key enhancements and new journey flows, adoption rose to 93%.
Most importantly, the project helped foster a culture shift within the organization, embedding a more design-led approach to solving business challenges.
COB
You can explore different parts of the COB experience by clicking the links below.
01 Streamlined onboarding and maintenance Journey
02
Private Corporate Journey
03
KYC Efficiencies initiative
04 Investment Policy Statements
05 E-sign journey