Advisers aim to ramp up marketing spending

Over the next 12 months, financial advisers expect to funnel their resources on money-generating activities. At the same time, they plan to pare expenses that don't produce revenue. According to the latest Rydex SGI AdvisorBenchmarking survey, 40% of surveyed financial advisers intend to hike their spending on technology. About a quarter said they plan to splash out on client appreciation activities. Meanwhile, advisers aim to trim spending on non-revenue generators such as bonuses (41%), travel (28%) and salaries (21%). One area that won't get the ax: marketing spending. Indeed, 42% of the polled advisers plan to boost their marketing outlays. Client referrals net advisers the most new clients, the poll found. But more than half of the surveyed advisers said certified public accountant and attorney referrals are the next-most-effective methods for attracting new clients and assets. Other ways to attract assets included referrals from financial advisers and brokers (17%). Websites were cited by 15% of the respondents to the poll, which was conducted through online surveys of 356 RIA firms November and December of 2009. Registered investment advisers also said they're seeing an increase in assets and clients. Eight in 10 RIAs saw total assets under management increase (72%) or remain steady (8%) over the previous year, according to the semiannual study. That's impressive, considering that RIA assets under management declined 12% in 2008, said Maya Ivanova, research manager for AdvisorBenchmarking. “It seems like advisers are in a position to grow their businesses and think about growth,” she said. Over the previous year, 70% of RIAs surveyed added new clients. Advisers surveyed attributed the recent growth to assets from new clients (88%), new assets from existing clients (72%) and improved market performance (88%). Ninety-one percent expect profits to rise in the coming year, while 83% expect the number of clients to increase. RIAs who reported asset losses attributed the losses to market performance (65%). Other reasons included loss of clients (42%) or withdrawals by clients (35%). The top business goals cited by RIAs for this year? No surprises there: business growth (69%) and increased client satisfaction (45%).