The institution where a consumer chooses to seek advice becomes their financial hub, even if it doesn’t hold every account that the consumer has. Advice and financial tools — and help implementing them — helps earn trust, which drives connections. Trust will lead consumers to be willing to give their banks access to accounts with other providers, and use digital tools to create a picture of their finances across all relationships, not just those the institution currently has. Jennifer White, senior director for banking and payments intelligence at J.D. Power noted that the highest-ranking large and regional banks in the study have figured this out. The top five players are Bank of America, U.S. Bank, Chase, First Citizens Bank and Citibank. White says three factors have either propelled institutions further up the study ranking, or helped them keep their places. The first factor is the volume of periodic advice that customers receive from their institution. The second factor is personalization of the advice. The third factor is providing practical help that the customer needs. “The highest movers in the study seemed to be making gains in helping customers understand how they’re spending their money, whether it is through a sit-down financial wellness review, digital spending categorization tools, or a banner or an email alerting them to where their money is going,” says White.