September 21, 2020 / by Don Connelly / Managing the Relationship / 2 comments
For years, the financial industry has lagged in its adaption of digital tools to market to, communicate with, and manage the relationships of clients. While Financial Advisors have gradually, sometimes begrudgingly, come to embrace new technologies, the covid19 pandemic this year has accelerated their digital transformation.
For growth-focused advisors, the crisis has been a catalyst for creating more digitally-oriented business development strategies. For example, according to Fidelity, the use of video conferencing for client interactions has doubled since the pandemic hit. In a survey by Ernst & Young, 55% of advisors say they plan to use virtual meetings more in the future.
As with most trends shaping the financial services industry, clients are leading the change. With 64% of high-net-worth clients and 75% of mass-affluent clients counting on their advisor relationship to be digital, it’s not just millennial clients who prefer a virtual relationship. For the most part, advisors are adjusting well to the change, finding it more productive and more effective at building their business. It also opens up more opportunities to find and work with clients who live in other parts of the country.
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Why Financial Advisors Must Embrace Technology Now
November 29, 2021 / by Don Connelly / Best Practices / 0 comments
In the third of our series of Critical Issues Facing Financial Advisors Right Now, we turn to the challenge facing advisors in adopting the technologies that will drive business growth for the foreseeable future. Financial advisors have seen the future, and it is now. Those who learn to embrace it will have a distinct advantage over those who continue to run from it.
We can complain all we want about the rise of robo-advisors but, the fact is, they only control a minute portion of the trillions of dollars held by wealth managers, advisors, and asset managers. Still, robo-advisors are on the cutting edge of technological innovations, and venture capital is flooding the financial technology sector with billions of dollars.
Our industry has reached a critical juncture where advisors must now choose to embrace technological change to get ahead of their competition and provide the level of service their clients have come to expect or risk obsolescence.
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Three Challenges Advisors Face in the Post-Pandemic World
March 22, 2021 / by Don Connelly / Managing the Relationship / 0 comments
At the height of the COVID crisis, financial advisors were confronted with unthinkable challenges. All things considered, the industry has been resilient in the face of unprecedented headwinds. But, as the other side of this crisis begins to come into view, the industry faces a significant shift that will shape the way advisors operate long after the pandemic wanes. Advisors who get in front of that shift and adapt to the new paradigms quickly will not just survive; they will thrive.
If you could capture clients’ general mood today in one word, “anxiety” would probably say it best. In their hearts, minds, and souls, it’s a very different world from just a year ago and, as much as we all hope for a return to normal, there may be no going back for clients. Their perceptions and priorities have forever changed, much like they did during the 2008 financial meltdown. Only this time, it’s different because it involves both financial and health risks.
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What Not to Do in Building Lasting Client Relationships
February 8, 2021 / by Don Connelly / Managing the Relationship / 0 comments
For financial advisors, building lasting client relationships is as essential as it is challenging. There’s really no more important aspect of an advisor’s practice to ensure sustainable growth. While many advisors try to focus on facets in their practice to bring more value to the relationship, they tend to gloss over what not to do, which can have an even more significant impact on their relationships – and not in a good way.
Here are four key “what not to do’s” all advisors need to proactively convert into a priority to-do list.
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How to Create a Digital Marketing Strategy
December 21, 2020 / by Don Connelly / Marketing Yourself / 0 comments
An increasing number of financial advisors are catching on to the fact that most of their clients and target market reside in a digital world where, if they fail to connect with them there, they risk becoming irrelevant or obsolete. Email, the internet, and social media have transformed the way consumers conduct their lives, and their influence now surpasses all other forms of persuasion, including television and print media. The critical question financial advisors must ask themselves now is, “How much digital influence do we have over our target market?”
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6 Tech Essentials for Financial Advisors
October 19, 2020 / by Don Connelly / Best Practices / 0 comments
Unquestionably, the advisory industry has been experiencing a significant transformation. Through advances in technology and the democratization of investing, financial advice is quickly becoming commoditized, much to the detriment of Financial Advisors who continue to languish in traditional business models. Today, adopting the right technology is becoming table stakes for advisors who want to maintain the trust of their clients and stand out in an increasingly competitive marketplace.
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5 Signs a Prospective Client Will Avoid Digital Engagement
September 21, 2020 / by Don Connelly / Managing the Relationship / 2 comments
For years, the financial industry has lagged in its adaption of digital tools to market to, communicate with, and manage the relationships of clients. While Financial Advisors have gradually, sometimes begrudgingly, come to embrace new technologies, the covid19 pandemic this year has accelerated their digital transformation.
For growth-focused advisors, the crisis has been a catalyst for creating more digitally-oriented business development strategies. For example, according to Fidelity, the use of video conferencing for client interactions has doubled since the pandemic hit. In a survey by Ernst & Young, 55% of advisors say they plan to use virtual meetings more in the future.
As with most trends shaping the financial services industry, clients are leading the change. With 64% of high-net-worth clients and 75% of mass-affluent clients counting on their advisor relationship to be digital, it’s not just millennial clients who prefer a virtual relationship. For the most part, advisors are adjusting well to the change, finding it more productive and more effective at building their business. It also opens up more opportunities to find and work with clients who live in other parts of the country.
Read more
5 Advantages Young Financial Advisors Have Over Older Advisors
June 8, 2020 / by Don Connelly / Best Practices / 0 comments
When it comes to asking people to handle their money, having a few grey hairs does bring a small advantage. People are just naturally reluctant to trust people with managing their money who are younger than their own children.
But there are some huge advantages to being a younger advisor, as well. In fact, I can tell you after decades in this business, there has never been a better time in the history of the financial services business to be coming into this business as a young advisor, or even a career changer under 40.
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Advice for New Financial Advisors – 8 Things Veteran Advisors Wish They Knew When They First Started Out
April 20, 2020 / by Don Connelly / Best Practices / 0 comments
“Experience is the best teacher. But only a fool learns by no other.”
This is a slight misquotation of Benjamin Franklin. But the idea is sound: We all can and should learn from the mistakes and experiences of those who came before us.
And advisors are certainly making mistakes! Somewhere between 70 and 90 percent of financial advisor trainees are out of the business by their fourth year. And too many of those who survive aren’t thriving.
So we asked some veteran financial advisors what they wished they knew when they first started out in this business, or what they would do differently if they could start over. There was a lot of variation in the details, but most of them had these themes in common.
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4 Steps to Avoid the Commoditization Trap (And Justify Your Fees)
February 10, 2020 / by Don Connelly / Marketing Yourself / 0 comments
Water is water, right? Everybody selling water is in the business of selling H2O. If anything was a hopeless case for commoditization and price collapse, it should be bottled water. Most cities in America can now deliver very clean, safe water right to the tap – at 0.0025 per gallon.
But bottled water companies like Waikea, Fiji, Aquafina and Desani have been tremendously successful in branding their products, affiliating themselves with target markets, associating themselves with positive lifestyles, creating a positive customer experience, and getting a premium price. Customers pay between 400 and 4,400 times more for bottled water than they do for tap water, and the premium water market continues to grow.
Financial advisors face a similar dynamic.
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Five Reasons Advisors Needn’t Fear Technology
July 23, 2018 / by Don Connelly / Best Practices / 0 comments
People are becoming increasingly adept at – and comfortable with – interacting with computers. This is fueling the debate around the merits of automated versus face-to-face financial advice. In reality, there’s no reason why both forms of communication can’t happily co-exist.
Technology can be a powerful aid to advisors when it comes to prospecting, building and maintaining relationships but it cannot replace the job of a full-service advisor. Here’s why.
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