Today’s digital age has brought about a great deal of change in many industries, and the wealth management sector is no exception. Financial advisors, like all businesspeople, need to stay one step ahead of client expectations in order to not only keep those customers, but also win new ones.
Most investors who presently engage with financial advisors fit one of three general profiles:
- Do-It-Yourself (“DIY”) Investors: These clients are self-driven investors who prefer to create their own financial plans or handle their own investments, and don’t necessarily want to be told what to do by a financial expert.
- Traditionalists/Delegators: These investors prefer that the financial advisors or certified public accountants (CPAs) they engage take the lead, and manage the work. These clients may wish to look at their plans online with some frequency, and meet with their advisor for the occasional meeting, but are hands-off most of the time.
- Validators: These clients tend to create a financial plan or goal on their own, and seek validation or feedback from their advisor along the way. But crucially, validators also prefer to review and validate any action an advisor might take beforehand — making them far more collaborative in nature than the other two types of investors.