Pandemic likely to reshape adviser-client communications, survey finds

Changes that are occurring in how investors and financial advisers communicate and collaborate during the pandemic are likely to become standard practices after normalcy returns, according to a survey of investors by Broadridge Financial Solutions.

Sixty-two percent of those who reported a change in the mode of communication as a result of the pandemic said they would entirely or partially maintain their new methods after the pandemic ends. Fifty-eight percent cited phone calls and 46% cited emails as new ways that they communicated with their adviser during the pandemic, with 36% having used video chat, even though only 9% prefer video above all others. Millennial investors were most likely to use video chat with their adviser, at 59%.

Over half (57%) of those surveyed said communications with their adviser had changed in some way in light of new stay-at-home mandates.

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“We are seeing an accelerated adoption of digitalization and personalization from investors, financial advisers, and wealth firms as a result of the pandemic,” Michael Alexander, president of wealth management at Broadridge, said in a statement. “The use of video conferencing, more personalized emails, and more frequent phone calls has broadened, deepened and changed the client-adviser relationship. As a result, investors don't want a return to the past. They largely prefer this new normal.”

The survey of 1,000 individuals who currently use a financial adviser in the United States and Canada was fielded in June 2020.

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