During my routine morning practice of scanning the days’ headlines for news, I came across two surveys this week that held some interesting insights into what financial planning clients want from their advisors.
One poll, conducted by Chase, reported that 49 percent of affluent investors said they are extremely or very likely to work with an advisor over the next 12 months, while another 18 percent are somewhat likely to do so. These people have some cash -- respondents to the survey had household income of at least $100,000, and between $250,000 and $10 million in liquid assets. Hey, that’s good news for advisors.
Okay, now pay attention. For the 61 percent of investors who have an advisor or say they’re likely to rely on one, the top three most important attributes are the advisor’s ability to provide the right advice for them (cited as extremely or very important by 93 percent), being market savvy (91 percent), and the ability to structure a long-term plan (83 percent). You can do that, can’t you?
And the news gets better: Of the 450 people surveyed, only 52 percent currently have a financial advisor. That leaves the other 48 percent for all of you to fight over. And since you already know what they want (see above), wooing them should be easy.
The other item I came across was a Nationwide Financial survey of more than a thousand people with household incomes greater than $150,000. Maybe they’re on your radar screen.
In any case, according to this survey, 85 percent of the respondents who lost money on their investments during the last three years blamed “the greatest extent of their losses on market fluctuations, while only 14 percent blamed themselves and a mere 11 percent placed the blame on their advisors.”
What I’d like to know is, who are the 11 percent who are blaming their advisors? And, just who is advising them? Now, I don’t know what the deal is -- maybe they’re getting some shoddy advice and are right to lay blame on their advisors. Or maybe their advisors are doing exactly what they should be doing, and the clients just have unrealistic expectations.
Those surveys got me wondering. How do financial planners know what their clients really want? Do they rely on market research? There’s certainly no shortage of that. Or do they ask their clients directly? Or is it some combination of the two?
So, which is it?
Let me hear from you.
