trust deficit Archives - Don Connelly & Associates

Get More from an Advisory Relationship with Client-Centric Investing

February 5, 2024 / by Don Connelly / Managing the Relationship / 0 comments

With the 2008 global financial crisis fading in the rearview mirror, investors are slowly regaining their confidence in the stock market with a halting willingness to take on more risk. However, many still find it challenging to overcome the trust deficit created by financial advisors who view them as assets to be managed rather than people with life ambitions.

To those advisors, the market indices and benchmarks mattered most. However, to the client, it was all about their financial future. All too often, advisors focused on standard deviation, Monte Carlo analysis, and risk-return lose sight of the emotional characteristics that drive investor behavior. They then become perplexed when their clients decide to break from a perfectly good investment strategy to follow the herd over a cliff near a market bottom.

5 Ways Financial Advisors Can Establish Credibility and Build Trust

December 18, 2023 / by Don Connelly / Best Practices / 0 comments

We’ve made no secret of the fact that a trust deficit exists between the public and the financial services industry. Advisors, new and experienced, must work consciously and deliberately every day to overcome it. The challenge for advisors is they could be the most trustworthy person in the world, but without credibility, there can be no trust.

There could be trust, but it might only be fleeting without proof that it’s genuine. That’s where credibility comes in. The building blocks of trust include honesty, transparency, reliability, consistency, competence, empathy, authenticity, and vulnerability—traits that, when demonstrated by actions, create credibility. An advisor’s credibility is bolstered even more when both parties feel they benefit mutually with a vested interest in each other’s success.

Here are five ways advisors can establish credibility by demonstrating the building blocks of trust.

How to Regain the Trust of a Client After a Disagreement

September 18, 2023 / by Don Connelly / Managing the Relationship / 0 comments

Can you think of any relationship that has never experienced conflict—where two people with the best of intentions fail to see eye to eye on an issue? Such is the nature of relationships, even where there is a track record of trust. You expect it in a marriage and even among colleagues—so why not between a financial advisor and their client?

It happens more than you might think. Financial advisors are wired to be analytical, while clients are often driven by emotion, which sets the stage for many “reality vs. perception” standoffs.

The Significance of Ethical Practices in Maintaining Trust and Integrity

August 21, 2023 / by Don Connelly / Managing the Relationship / 0 comments

Most financial advisors consciously try to do the right thing always. However, most people are sometimes prone to error, which is only human. The reality is that advisors, through no fault of their own, sometimes find themselves in situations where conflicts between ethical principles, client interests, and regulatory requirements can create ethical dilemmas.

The challenge for advisors is that they have to overcome a huge trust deficit with clients and prospects. To earn and keep their trust, they must constantly be hyper-aware of their actions and how they may be perceived, whether an ethical breach is intentional or not. That requires having a conscious and deliberate strategy to resolve any potential conflict.

Here are the most common ethical dilemmas faced by financial advisors.

Successful Selling Habits for Advisors Who Don’t Want to Sell

February 20, 2023 / by Don Connelly / Marketing Yourself / 0 comments

Many financial advisors resist the notion that they must be good at selling to be a successful advisor. Some go out of their way to distance themselves from the “salesperson” label. That’s fine because when you consider the totality of what quality financial advisors do, it doesn’t fit the traditional definition of “salesperson.” However, that doesn’t get around the fact that, regardless of their profession, for anyone to be successful, they must be able to sell.

3 Soft Skills Advisors Need to Refine for an Immediate Connection with Prospects

May 16, 2022 / by Don Connelly / Managing the Relationship / 0 comments

Not to diminish the hard work, effort, and time that goes into becoming a financial advisor—few professions are as demanding—but the essential skill advisors must acquire is the ability to sell. Perhaps a more acceptable term would be “the art of persuasion.” Whichever way you want to frame it, if you have difficulty persuading or convincing people to take action, you stand little chance of success.

Of course, that’s true of just about any profession that requires changing or influencing people’s behavior. It just happens to be more challenging when selling financial advice and expecting to get paid for it. Advisors must understand that buying an intangible service requiring people to trust that the advisor can deliver that intangible value is scary for most people. It’s far less threatening to stay with the status quo and do nothing.

The trouble is, if you can’t convince people to follow you or your advice, you aren’t accomplishing anything. To overcome the inherent trust deficit and open prospects’ minds, financial advisors must constantly refine three critical soft skills, or they will have fewer chances to demonstrate their highly trained competencies.

Working Mostly Online in a Post-pandemic World Is Especially Hard on New Advisors

December 28, 2020 / by Diana Marinova / Best Practices, Connelly Corner / 0 comments

This turbulent year is almost over and looking back, we see a few clear trends of topics that interested Financial Advisors the most on our blog during 2020. We’d like to share some of them with you now, in case you missed them the first time around.

Here are the first three topics most requested and read by our community of financial professionals in 2020.

3 Issues Financial Advisors Should Address to Overcome the Trust Deficit in Clients

November 23, 2020 / by Don Connelly / Managing the Relationship / 0 comments

Financial Advisors face a huge trust deficit. That’s significant because who holds a more important position of trust than an advisor who can impact when people retire, how they live in retirement, and what’s their financial security late in life when they need it the most? For advisors whose livelihood depends on attracting new clients and retaining them, that’s a major obstacle to overcome every day.