In the fast-paced world of wealth management, moving from one broker-dealer to another can be a fraught emotional journey because technology increasingly dictates the most critical portions of the move, including the transition of assets. According to Cerulli Associates, most relationships and transactions occur online — 92% of financial advisors use e-signatures and 75% use video conferences. Today, in our remote and sometimes isolated work environments, machines rule our lives in the name of operational efficiency. But when technical problems arise during transition and no one picks up the phone, advisors are made to feel invisible — a cog in the wheel.
Before they make the leap of their lifetimes, advisors with strong, long-term client connections look for a partner that offers meaningful guidance and dedicated transition personnel with an authentic human touch. These firms are riding the wave of new and important concepts around holistic wealth — a term first coined by author Keisha Blair — that recognize that post-pandemic, no one can afford to divorce their mental or emotional health from their wealth or finances.
These broker-dealers execute a holistic mindset from the corner office because they understand that attending to advisor well-being, starting with onboarding, helps advisors weather the inevitable storms that come with managing other people’s money in an unpredictable world. To understand how central advisor well-being is to a brokerage’s success, look no further than the recent problems at Charles Schwab, when a major account migration went awry and Schwab faced attrition in terms of both customers and disappointed advisors, many of whom could not reach Schwab’s service desk.
Successful advisors understand the importance of emotional well-being and reducing clients' potential anxiety about their financial futures. Advisors also act as a guiding presence, explaining the "what," "how" and "why" of financial plans.
When it comes to transitions, successful firms are like successful advisors who know how to keep clients calm during unexpected downturns. Just as having a wedding planner by their side helps couples prepare for their big day, when it comes to onboarding or succession planning, advisors are more assured when their new broker-dealer plays a critical role.
Broker-dealers that practice holistic transition services assign a "team captain" to provide a personal touch to the transition experience, building a close relationship with the advisor and understanding their specific needs. The team captain assumes responsibility for coordinating various transition resources, including real estate, technology, marketing, branding and more, ensuring alignment with the advisor's goals.
Adopting holistic wealth management that includes advisor well-being and human connectivity, then, is about advisor access — not only to a firm’s service desk, but also to senior leadership. Members of the C-suite aren't out of the picture: From the very beginning, advisors should have their chief executive on speed dial and reachable during most hours of the day. These are only a few examples of services that haven’t always been available, and while they may be stretch goals for many companies, they need to be in place now. Advisors also live in the real world, where they face heightened volatility and competition, and they need the right answers, right when they call.
Many companies aspired to offer services that advisors didn't always have access to, but executing on those ideas took time. Now, however, change is a matter of survival.
Some of the pressure is coming from other places — what Amazon, Uber or Netflix offer builds consumer expectations around a “service now” culture that’s increasingly more personalized, accessible and digitized. Today, it’s common to find clients seeking this level of service from their financial advisors, because wealth management is also a service that’s moving toward 24/7 accessibility to investment tools and resources. Advisors who meet rising expectations in turn deserve a higher level of service from their firms to help cut through the noise and deliver a more personalized, accessible and human level of client service. To succeed, firms need to operate to the new service principles, during transitions and beyond.
After years or even decades with a single broker-dealer, accomplished advisors may need to make a move to take their business to the next level. This decision is monumental and often uncharted territory. Undertaking this transition with the support of a firm that values the advisor's total well-being contributes to success, benefiting not only the advisor but also the firm and the clients it serves. In this evolving landscape, human-powered transition services have become the linchpin that empowers advisors.
Our industry has been emphatic about placing advisors first and providing greater C-suite access, but living by this creed hasn't always been easy, partly because of perceptions it might be a journey of a thousand miles. In my experience, it’s been the opposite — the shortcut to advisor satisfaction and firmwide triumphs. A deeper alignment with the values of holistic wealth management and committing to walking in the same direction as our advisors is a worthwhile pursuit. Sometimes, just one phone call can set an advisor’s day right.
Alex David is president and CEO of Stifel Independent Advisors, a subsidiary of Stifel Financial Corp.
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