Just as most Singaporeans know the importance of an annual medical health screening to detect ailments and ensure their health checks out, OCBC Bank is making financial portfolio reviews an annual affair amongst its customers to ensure their financial life goals stay on track.

This is the first time a bank in Singapore has rolled out such an annual review process. OCBC Bank offers the service to all customers who use the OCBC Life Goals financial advisory tool to plan for their life goals – including retirement and children's education – and to understand the financial gaps they face in meeting these goals. About 8,000 customers have done this since OCBC Life Goals was launched in November 2017.

This month, an SMS review alert will be sent to about 800 customers who had gone through a financial planning session in November 2017 using OCBC Life Goals with a frontline employee. OCBC Bank's SMS review alerts will be sent one year after the financial plans are drawn up.

Of the 8,000 customers who have mapped out their financial goals with a frontline employee using the OCBC Life Goals programme, more than 50% are personal banking customers with assets under management of below S$200,000. This indicates a demand for longer-term financial planning conversations beyond one-off product purchases.

Since 1 November 2018, OCBC Bank has offered the OCBC Life Goals digital financial advisory tool to all customers via OCBC Bank's internet banking platform, catering to those who prefer a more independent and self-service channel to plan their financial goals.

After taking into account their current financial status and income sources, this digital tool enables customers to set goals and understand the amounts required to attain them, such as having sufficient funds for retirement or having enough to finance their children's tertiary education. Customers respond to a series of questions to capture information about their financial goals, income information, existing and projected sources of wealth.

Dennis Tan, OCBC Bank's head of consumer financial services Singapore, says: "An oft-cited pain point of customers is the disruption they face in their financial planning journey when the frontline employee moves on to another role or leaves the bank. They are unable to continue their financial conversations with a new frontline employee and interactions become merely transactional. The OCBC Life Goals programme has addressed this pain point. Like doctors in clinics, our frontline employees need only pull up the customer's financial planning history to understand their circumstances better and can then spend the session more productively gathering new information to find appropriate solutions."